THE NE W FLU TAR CH 



HAROUN ALRASCHID 



THE NEW PLUTARCH: 

Lives of Men and Women of Action. 



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HAROUN ALRASCHID 



CALIPH OF BAGDAD 



/A 



BY 



Ernr PALMER, M.A. 

Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge 



Sole star of all that place and time, 
I saw him— in his golden prime, 
The good Haroun Alraschid. 

Tennyson, 







ILontJou: 

MARCUS WARD & CO., 67, 68, CHANDOS STREET 

And royal ULSTER WORKS, BELFAST 
1881 



^ 






^l-» 



leR 10 



ff^l 



EDITORS' PREFACE. ^ ^^ 



THE name of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid is 
inseparably associated with the most charming 
collection of stories ever invented for the solace and 
delight of mankind. Whether there ever was any 
" Aaron the Just " in the flesh — whether he is not as 
legendary as King Arthur — it seldom occurs to the 
ordinary reader to inquire. )The stories belong to all 
time and to no tim^ ) ' The king no doubt still 
wanders incognito in the streets of Bagdad ; one- 
eyed Calendars still tell their tales; fishermen 
continue to delude the stupid genie; Aladdin goes 
on rubbing his lamp. The great Caliph has nothing 
to do with reality ; his Bagdad is a city which may 
be on the Euphrates or on any other river, provided 
it be a stately city by a stately river ; he, his empire, 
his crown, his city, his palace, his people, his officers, 
his harem, belong all alike to Fableland, where every- 
body has been hitherto content to leave them. 

When Professor Palmer, therefore, being consulted 
as to a worthy representative of Islam for this series 
of illustrious men of all time, proposed the good 
Haroun Alraschid, one experienced at once that 



6 Preface. 

curiosity which attaches to a thing entirely new, and 
yet strangely familiar. The Caliphate, the successors 
of the Prophet, the great Empire of the East, the 
man himself, all became at once endowed with life 
and reality. The Professor went on to explain that 
not only was the subject full of interest, but that 
there were boundless stores of Arabic histories from 
which to draw, and that his chief difficulty would be 
to compress within our modest limits a historical 
account of the Empire and the King, with selections 
from the stories which surround his name. 

The following pages are the result of his labours. 
The introductory chapter is an account of the rise 
and growth of the Empire ; the Caliph of real 
history follows, an Eastern autocrat, capricious, cruel, 
and vindictive, yet of a bon naturel. In the " Caliph 
of legend," the Author shows how not only stories 
have gathered round his name more thickly than 
round that of the great Carl, or Frederick Redbeard, 
but also how the memory of the man is preserved in 
anecdotes which bear upon themselves the stamp of 
truth. It is therefore with great satisfaction that we 
present the readers of the " New Plutarch " with a 
restoration to life, so to speak, of one who has too 
long been little better than a dweller in the realms 
of fiction. For the first time, the great Caliph of 
legend is " done into English " as a Caliph of history 
and reality. 

W. J. B. 

W. B. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction — The Rise of the Caliphate, . 9 

Chap. I.— Haroun's Accession, ... 29 

II.— "The Golden Prime," . , • 55 

III.— The Fall of the Barmecides, . . 81 

IV.— The Latter End, . . . .107 

v.— The Caliph of the Legend, . . 139 

Index, . . , . . . .225 

Genealogical Table of the Houses of Ommaiyeh, 

Abbas, and Ali, • . . • . 229 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE RISE OF THE CALIPHATE. 

THE ancient Empire of Persia was tottering to 
its fall, the great and holy Roman Empire had 
well-nigh run its course, when Mohammed, with true 
prophetic inspiration — or, what is more, with true 
political instinct — foretold to the Arabians that they 
should inherit the glories of the dying empires, and 
should themselves, for the same faults, ultimately 
share their fate. 

" Do they not see how many a generation we have 
destroyed before them, whom we had settled on the earth 
as we have not settled for you, and sent the rain of heaven 
on them in copious showers, and made the waters flow 
beneath them ? Then we destroyed them for their sins, and 
raised up other generations after them." — Koran, vi. 6. 

I propose, in the following pages, to show what the 
Mohammedan empire was at the culminating point 
of its greatness, by sketching the career of the most 
illustrious of its sovereigns, and the one most familiar 
to European readers — to describe, in short, 

the golden prime 

Of good Haroun Alraschid. 

It will, however, be necessary first to learn, as briefly 
as possible, in what manner and through what means 
the Mohammedan power had its rise and origin. 

The Arabs, in and before Mohammed's time, were 
a brave and vigorous race, preserving almost un- 



lo Introductioit. 



changed the habits and mode of life of the patriarchal 
age. Living in the pure and invigorating air of the 
desert, far from the turmoil of men and cities ; unac- 
quainted with luxury, and possessing in his camels, 
sheep, and tents all that he absolutely required for his 
subsistence, the Arab was, and still is, a free, simple, 
vigorous child of nature. Like all peoples who live 
in constant communion with nature, poetry was a 
passion as well as an innate talent with him, and by 
furnishing him with an easy vehicle for the recording 
of thoughts and events, by giving him in fact a litera- 
ture, although an unwritten one, redeemed him from 
many of the faults of unlettered savagery. " The 
Arabs' registers are the verses of their bards," says 
their own proverb, and the number of these which 
have been preserved afford invaluable materials for 
the study of their history and character. Their poetry 
was the natural outcome of their mode of existence, 
and the very metres and rhythms which they employ 
breathe the desert air. Just as the Scandinavian 
poet, in his daily life amidst brawling torrents and 
dashing cascades, threw his thoughts insensibly into 
language that flowed in harmony with these voices of 
nature around him ; so the Arab, in the stillness of the 
desert, thought aloud as he journeyed on, while his 
thoughts insensibly fell into language whose rhythm 
was guided by the pace of his camel or himself. 

So passionately fond of liberty is the Arab, that he 
will not brook the trammels of government or even 
of society. The individual Bedawi bows to no 
authority but his own will; and if a tribe acknow- 
ledge a Sheikh or elder as its head, it promises no 
allegiance to him as ruler or lord, but only cedes to 
him the right of representing it in its dealings with 
strangers, and gives him the somewhat equivocal 
privilege of occupying the most exposed part of the 



Arab Character, ii 

camp, and of entertaining all comers at his own 
expense. A certain strong feeling of clanship among 
the members of individual tribes, an irrepressible 
love of plunder and freebooting, leading to constant 
petty wars and prolonged vendettas, and a supersti- 
tious belief in a debased form of Sabaeanism, were 
the chief characteristics of the people in the midst of 
whom Mohammed was born. 

The requirements of commerce necessitated some 
general gatherings of the tribes, and the territory of 
Mecca, where was situated the most honoured shrine 
of Sabaean worship, was naturally the locality in which 
they would occur. Accordingly, an annual fair was 
held at Ocadh, where literary contests also took 
place ; and these, like the Olympic games amongst 
the Greeks, served to keep alive a certain feeling of 
national unity among the different tribes. Two 
results followed from this state of things, which have 
an important bearing on the success of Mohammed's 
mission. In the first place, the tribe of the Koreish, 
from which he sprung, were located on the site of the 
Ka'abeh, the chief temple of national worship just 
referred to, and they therefore became the natural 
guardians of the sacred edifice, and so acquired a kind 
of prescriptive superiority over other tribes. Secondly, 
as all the tribes met in the territory of the Koreish 
to try their respective skill in poetry and oratory, the 
language of this particular tribe became necessarily 
the standard dialect, and absorbed into itself many of 
the idioms and locutions of the rest. Thus we see 
that local, tribal, and social circumstances were all 
in favour of the development of any great idea 
originating with the Koreish. 

So far, the picture of the Arab is a bright and 
favourable one ; but there is, unfortunately, a dark 
side to it. Morally and intellectually, they were in a 



12 Introduction. 



state of revolting barbarism ; the primitive simplicity 
of Sabaeanism — the worship of the Hosts of Heaven — 
had degenerated into a gloomy and idolatrous poly- 
theism ; drunkenness, gambling, divination by arrows, 
polygamy, murder, and worse vices were terribly rife 
amongst them. 

Am.ongst their other savage practices, that of 
burying their female children alive was perhaps the 
worst. Even at the present day, female children are 
considered rather a disgrace than a blessing by the 
Bedawi Arabs, and a father never counts them in 
enumerating his offspring. Before Mohammed's time, 
the same dislike existed in a more repulsive form still, 
and this practice of burying daughters alive — wdd 
at bendt, as it was called — was very prevalent. " The 
best son-in-law is the grave," said one of their own 
proverbs, and the father was in most cases the 
murderer. It is narrated of one chief, Othman, that 
he never shed tears except on one occasion, when his 
little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the 
grave-dust from his beard. Against this inhuman 
practice Mohammed directed all the thunders of his 
eloquent indignation, and set before their eyes the 
terrors of the last day, " when the female child that 
hath been buried alive shall be asked for what crime 
she was put to death." 

The Ka'abeh, their chief sanctuary, contained no 
fewer than three hundred and fifty idols ; amongst 
them the famous black stone, said to have fallen from 
heaven, and to have been originally white, though 
now blackened by the kisses of devout but sinful 
mortals. 

The guardianship of the Ka'abeh and the chieftain- 
ship of the Koreish tribe were vested in Abd Menaf,^ 



1 See Genealogy. 



The Early Caliphs. 13 

j 

land would in the ordinary course of things have 
descended to his eldest son, Abd Shems. His second 
son Hashim, however, having obtained a victory over 
kn invading Abyssinian army, was promoted to the 
office, and a deadly rivalry henceforth existed 
-between the two families ; from his son Ommaiyeh 
.were descended the Ommiade cahphs of Damascus. 
Hashim's son, Abd al Muttaleb, had three sons — 
)Abdallah, the father of the Prophet Mohammed; 
lAbbas, the progenitor of the Abbaside caliphs ; and 
:Abu Talib, the father of Ali, who married Mohammed's 
idaughter Fatima, from whom sprang the Fatemite 
land Alawi caliphs, who ruled in Egypt and Africa. 

At Mohammed's death, the tribes of Arabia would 
have relapsed into their former anarchy, had it not 
been for the wisdom and energy of Omar, one of the 
staunchest supporters of El Islam, and a father-in-law 
of the Prophet. There were four claimants for the 
Caliphate — Ali, first cousin to Mohammed, and 
husband of the latter's youngest daughter Fatima ; 
Abu Bekr, father of Mohammed's favourite wife 
Ayesha ; Omar, whom we have just mentioned, 
father of Hafsa, another of his wives ; and Othman, a 
member of the house of Ommaiyeh. Othman had, 
however, embraced Islam and married two of the 
Prophet's daughters. Ali was undoubtedly the lawful 
successor, but as he had on one occasion mortally 
offended Ayesha by listening to a charge of incontin- 
ence that had been brought against her, she used all 
her influence to prevent his accession, and the house 
of Ommaiyeh strenuously supported her opposition. 
An immediate rupture was avoided by the election of 
Abu Bekr, at whose death Omar was, by the intrigues 
of Ayesha, invested with the office of Caliph, and, 
when Omar died, Othman was elected, as Ali refused 
to subscribe to the conditions imposed upon him, that 



14 Introduction, 



he should govern according to the Koran and the, 
" Traditions." Ali's reply is remarkable : he declared 
his readiness to govern according to the Koran, but 
would not be bound by the " Traditions of the 
Elders," as he called them ; thus giving contem-1 
poraneous evidence that the " Sunna," or " Tradi-j 
tions," are not, as the sect called Sunnis pretend] 
composed of the personal sayings of Mohammed, bub 
represent the traditional legal wisdom of Arabia] 
which has received the sanction of Mohammed's 
name. This is a very important point to bear in 
mind, as it accounts to a great extent for the anti- 
pathy of the Persians to the Sunnite creed. The 
Koran itself is, indeed, less the invention or concep- 
tion of Mohammed, than a collection of legends and 
moral axioms borrowed from desert lore and couched 
in the language and rhythm of desert eloquence, but 
adorned with the additional charm of enthusiasm. 
Had it been merely Mohammed's own invented dis- 
courses, bearing only the impress of his personal 
style, the Koran could never have appealed with so 
much success to every Arab-speaking race as such a 
miracle of eloquence that its very beauty is divine ; 
nor would it, as it has done, have formed the recog- 
nised standard of literary elegance and grandeur. 
Ali's reply, then, contained the whole gist of the 
dispute between Shiah and Sunni. The former will 
accept the Koran, the legal code of which is vague 
and incomplete, and which contains only one uncom- 
promising dogma — that of the unity of God — which he 
can and does refine away. But, on the other hand, he 
will not acknowledge the Sunna, which hampers him 
at every step with alien ordinances and with cere- 
monies foreign to his nature and his national 
traditions, 

Othman's first act, on being promoted to the chief 



Murder of All 15 

:ommand in El Islam, was to fill all the most import- 
ant posts with members of the House of Ommaiyeh, 
^.loawiyeh, son of Abu Sofyan, being made Governor 
'if Syria. Othman was at length assassinated, and Ali 
'lected, this time unconditionally, to the Caliphate. 
jie at once recalled Moawiyeh, who refused to obey, 
'.nd, backed by the influence of Ayesha, claimed the 
Caliphate for himself. A severe contest followed 
between the armies of Ali and Moawiyeh, in which 
he former was at first successful. He was, however, 
iompelled by the intrigues of Amrou, the general who 
lad conquered Egypt, to submit his own claims and 
hose of Moawiyeh to arbitration, instead of taking 
ull advantage of his military success. Arrived at 
<:u.a, 12,000 of Ali's followers took offence at the 
)roposed arbitration and deserted, which defection 
)riginated the sect of Kharegites or Separatists, 
who reject the lawful government established by 
•ublic consent." Three of these deserters, named 
'arak, Amrou, and Abdarrahman, planned a con- 
:)iracy to assassinate, on one and the same day, Ali, 
"oawiyeh, and Amrou, whose quarrels they con- 
dered had caused all the troubles and dissensions in 
slam. Barak went to Damascus, and attacked 
vioawiyeh in the mosque during the Friday prayers, 
iut without fatal results. Amrou, at the same hour, 
intered the Mosque of Cairo and slew Karija, whom 
ie mistook for Amrou, the general. Abdarrahman, 
;he third conspirator, repaired to Kufa, where the 
[laliph was felled to the ground by a sword-cut on the 
lead as he was entering the mosque (A.D. 660). He 
ivas buried about five miles from Kufa, and in later 
iimes a magnificent mausoleum was erected over the 
ipot, which became the favourite resort of Shiah 
pilgrims, and the site of the city of Meshed Ali, or 
' Ali's shrine." On All's death, his eldest son Hasan 



1 6 Introduction. 



was elected Caliph, but resigned the office to Moa 
wiyeh, on the understanding that he should agaii 
succeed at the latter's decease. Moawiyeh, howevei 
had other designs in view, and determined that hi 
own son Yezid should succeed him. At Moawiyeh' 
instigation, Hasan was foully murdered by his ow 
wife, eight years after his father's death, and Ayesh 
the evil genius of Ali's family, herself died some yea' 
after — murdered, it is said, by her protege Moawiye 
On Moawiyeh's death, his son Yezid succeeded hi 
without election, and the Ommiade dynasty thi 
became established on the throne of the Caliphat 
Yezid had hardly assumed the office, when tl 
partisans of Ali's family prepared to revolt, ar. 
Husain, Ali's surviving son, who was then at Mecc^j 
was secretly invited to Kufa to place himself at thj 
head of the party. Yezid, however, had timelj 
warning of the intended rising, and replaced the the) 
governor of Kufa by the stern and uncompromising 
Obeidallah, who seized on Muslim, the envoy i 
Husain, and on Hani, in whose house he had bee 
concealed ; and when a crowd collected about t 
Palace, clamouring for the release of the prisoner 
ordered their heads to be struck off and thrown dow; 
to the assembled multitude. As Husain himseli 
arrived on the borders of Babylonia, he was met b; 
Harro with a company of horse. This man told hin 
that he had Obeidallah's orders to bring him to Kufa \ 
and on Husain's refusing to accompany him, h< 
allowed him to choose any road that led to Kufa, an( , 
retreated his force for the purpose of facilitating th« 
movement. After riding through the night, a horse ' 
man met them, and delivered instructions to Harrc ; 
that he was to lead Husain into an open and unde| m 
fended place until the Syrian army came up anc " 
surrounded them. The next day Amer arrived witl 



Death of Htisain, ij 

4000 men from Kufa, and, on Obeidallah's orders, cut 
Sff Husain's retreat on the plain of Kerbela by the 
^'^iver Euphrates, surrounded his camp, and demanded 
lis unconditional surrender. His refusal was followed 
Sy a murderous attack from the enemy, which Husain 
^uid his few followers for some time repelled, but 
vhich ended in their complete annihilation. 
^ The great secret of Mohammed's success, and of 
, he rapid military and religious development of Islam, 
ay in the fact that he, for the first time in their 
listory, banded together the Arab tribes in one con- 
federation, taught them that they possessed a national 
iriity, and made them lay aside their petty feuds and 
^ealousies. 

, \The first four, or orthodox Caliphs, as the Moham- 

liedans call them, though exercising a perfectly 

absolute authority, never threw aside the simple 

<("icinners and habits of a desert sheikh. Dressed in a 

oarse abba, or loose hair-cloth cloak, or wearing a 
yde sheepskin mantle over his shoulders, and with 

ajthern sandals on his feet, the " Prince of the 
■jAilthful" walked unattended about the market-place, 

. ci listened to complaints of and criticisms on his 
j^Ji'e, and often delivered in rude offensive terms. 
■p (Their position, as the name Caliph (or, more 
iD[rrectly, Khalifeh) implies, was strictly that of 

Successor" to the Prophet, and their functions were 
iif^refore ecclesiastical as well as military. Indeed, 
.ley used to lead the prayers of the worshippers in 
(?!rson on Fridays in the principal mosque of the 
i-kpital. 

j The following anecdote will illustrate the simplicity 
xf their lives and the relations they held towards 
^■{leir followers : — On one occasion the Caliph Omar 
J;in el Khattab had received a present from Yemen of 
lome fine striped cloth, which he distributed amongst 



si 



Introduction. 



his followers. On the next day, when he ascended 
the pulpit and exhorted the congregation to fight 
against the infidels, one man rose and said, " I will 
neither listen nor obey!" "Why not?" asked the 
Caliph. " Because," said he, '' I see you wearing a 
shirt of that stuff from Yemen, and unless you had 
taken more than your share, such a tall man as you 
are would not have found it enough." Omar called 
upon his son Abdallah to clear him from the unjust 
suspicion, which he did by telling the congregation 
that he had himself given a piece from his own share 
of the cloth to make up the deficiency in his father's 
portion. 

Led by such chiefs, and animated by the intense 
enthusiasm and religious fervour which Mohammed 
had inspired, the armies of Islam swept irresistibly 
over Asia, and the vast empire of the Khosroes fell 
almost without a struggle. At first, with their iconjo- 
clastic instincts and their love of plunder, thjey 
brought nothing but ruin and devastation in thjeir 
train, and the treasures of art and literature wtjire 
dispersed or destroyed as soon as they fell into thjeir 
hands. Nor had they at first any better idea j of 
taking advantage of their conquests than the 6)ld 
Arab plan of confiscating the portable property cpf, 
and imposing a tax on, the conquered, offering tlie 
choice of Islam or death to those who either could njot 
or would not pay it. Soon, however, the exigencies 
of their widely extended dominions required mo^.re 
settled and elaborate government ; the aid of Greellcs 
and Persians was called in to assist the Arajb 
generals and governors, and the desert warriors begain 
gradually to adapt themselves to the civilisatiojn 
around them. Arts, sciences, and literature begarn 
once more to take their former place under the 
Moslem rule, but we must not forget, as so maniy 



Govermnefit of Conqiiend Countries. 19 

historians seem to do, that none of these blessings 
owe more to the Arabs than the permission to exist. 
It is solely to Persian and Greek influence that they 
survived ; the simple but barbarous Caliphs, during 
the first years of the empire, left the whole of the 
administration of the provinces in native hands to 
such an extent that, for some time, Greek was the 
language \x\ which the official acts of the Arab rulers 
were rc-corded. Persian artists designed and decorated 
their mosques and palaces ; the gardens of Shiraz, and 
not the rude rocks of the desert, suggested the beau- 
tiful forms of tracery that we are accustomed to call 
Arabesque ; the science and philosophy were all either 
Indian or Greek. In fact, it was Aryan civilisation, 
that would not be crushed out by rude invasion ; it 
was history repeating itself, and 

" Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit at artes 
Tetulit agresti Latio." 

Yezid's succession to the Caliphate on the death 
of his father Moawiyeh was not distasteful to the 
partisans of All's family alone. In Mecca resided 
Abdallah ibn Zobeir, a man with many claims to the 
affection and reverence of the faithful. His father, 
Z^obeir, had been one of the earliest converts to Islam, 
?l cousin and intimate friend of the prophet, and a 
successful general who had mainly contributed to the 
c|onquest of Africa, and had almost won Byzantium 
for the Moslem arms : the son, Abdallah, was born at 
Medina during Mohammed's sojourn there, and had 
been nursed by the Prophet himself, with whom he 
was a great favourite. On the death of H us a in, 
Abdallah was saluted Caliph by the Meccans ; 
Medina followed shortly after, and in a little time all 
Hejjaz acknowledged his authority. Medina was 
slacked by the army which Yezid had sent against it, 



20 Introduction. 



but Mecca still held out, until the death of the Caliph 
put an end to the siege. 

Yezid presented a great contrast to his simple and 
severe predecessors. During h s reign, which lasted 
only three years and six months, he shocked the 
Moslem world by his excesses, his open indulgence 
in wine, and his poetry, in which he ridiculed the 
most sacred tenets of his faith, and launched into 
extravagant praises of all that it forbade. 

His son Moawiyeh was a mere boy when his father 
died. In a few months he begged to be relieved of 
the burden of sovereignty, which he felt to be too 
great for him, and died (some say poisoned) in retire-t 
ment shortly afterwards. | 

Abdallah ibn Zobeir failed to take advantage of 
the opportunity afforded by Yezid's death, and th6 
chiefs of the house of Ommaiyeh chose Merwan, /k 
friend and favourite of the Caliph Otliman, as thje 
successor to the throne. He was murdered by hfs 
wife after a short reign of nine months, during which 
the empire was distracted by the sanguinary confliqts 
of the rival parties contending for power. Besidt^s 
the son of Zobeir at Mecca, there were also in tlpe 
field the partisans of Ali at Kufa and the Kharegite^s, 
or Separatists, who had deserted Ali at Siffin. NoW 
were these the only elements of discord, for a dis- 
turbing cause existed in Islam, almost as potent a's 
the racial hatred between the Arabs and the Persians ; 
this was the antagonism between the purely nomadit'^. 
tribes, who claimed Modhar for their sire — and td> 
whom the Koreish, although settled at Mecca- 
belonged — and the more civilised tribes of Yemen 
Between these two parties an ancient and irreconcil 
able feud existed, and although the enthusiasm o 
religion and the lust of conquest banded the 
together for a time, their smothered hatred was 



Abd el Melik. 21 



always ready to burst out into flame. Another fertile 
source of danger to the empire was the miUtary 
power with which the governors of provinces were 
armed, and which often enabled and tempted them 
to withstand the Caliph's authority. Thus religious 
fanaticism, racial hatred, tribal feuds, family quarrels, 
and private ambition were all together threatening to 
undermine the magnificent structure which the easy 
victories of Mohammed and his successors had 
built up. 

The Ommiade family had owed its success to the 
severe virtues and the unflinching courage inherent in 
the chiefs of the desert ; but prosperity, by destroy- 
ing the necessity for the exercise of these virtues and 
by effacing their primitive simplicity, hastened their 
fall. 

Abd el Melik, Merwan's son, who succeeded him, did 
something to stem the tide of ruin. He was a prince 
of great ability and determination, and knew how to 
consolidate his authority, and establish it on a firmer 
basis. The language of the official documents in 
which the affairs of the empire were recorded was 
changed from Persian to Arabic ; the freedom of 
intercourse which the former Caliphs had allowed 
their subjects was jealously repressed by him ; the 
Arabian provinces were brought under his rule ; and 
El Hejjaz, one of the most stern and bloodthirsty 
commanders that Arab history records, having been 
sent by him to Mecca, conquered the city and put the 
usurper, Abdallah ibn Zobeir, to death (a d. 692). 

Before Abd el Melik ascended the throne, he had 
pursued theological studies at Medina with such 
assiduity that he acquired the sobriqiiet of the 
' Mosque Pigeon," since, like those birds, he scarcely 
^ver quitted the holy edifice, but remained there day 
and night reading the Koran. When news was 



22 Introdiictioit. 



brought him of his father's death and his own suc- 
cession, he shut up the volume and said, " Here you 
and I part!" after which he occupied himself entirely 
with affairs of state. 

His greatest achievement was the building of the 
magnificent Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, which 
work, though undertaken chiefly through political 
exigencies, and in order to divert men from the 
pilgrimage to Mecca, the capital of his rival Abdallah 
ibn Zobeir, remains a lasting memorial of his muni- 
ficence. 

At Abd el Melik's death, the Caliphate passed into 
the hands of his eldest son, Walid, with a reversion, in 
case of his death, to his second son, Suleiman. Walid 
wished to set aside this arrangement in favour of his 
own son Abd el Aziz, and, with the assistance of El 
Hejjaz and other chiefs, planned to obtain from his 
brother a formal renunciation of his rights of succes- 
sion. Suleiman sought the aid of the Yemeni chiefs, 
and the slumbering passions of the two factions being 
aroused, a series of revolutions and civil wars com- 
menced, which ultimately resulted in the downfall of 
the Ommiade dynasty. 

In A.D. 715 Walid died, and was succeeded by his 
brother Suleiman. He, like his brother, had wished 
one of his own sons to succeed him, but yielded to 
the advice of his counsellors, and left sealed instruc- 
tions that Omar ibn Abd el Aziz, a grandson of 
Merwan, should be proclaimed Caliph at his death, 
which was accordingly done. 

During the reigns of Abd el Melik and Walid the 
limits of the empire were vastly extended by a conf 
tinned series of conquests, Spain, India, and Centraij. 
Asia being included in their dominions. Arabia had 
been quieted by the death of Abdallah ibn Zobeii 
and the taking of Mecca. El Hejjaz, who had 



Anecdote of IValfd II. 23 

accomplished the task, ruled the turbulent provinces 
of Irak with an iron hand. 

Walid was the last great monarch of the Om- 
miade dynasty. Yezid II., who succeeded him, was a 
prince of frivolous character, and although he, or 
rather his brother Maslamah, succeeded in repressing 
a formidable revolt of the Yemeni faction, the 
slaughter with which the victory was accompanied 
only increased the latent hatred of the disaffected 
tribes. He died in A.D. 723, and was succeeded on 
the throne by his brother Hisham, who, by appointing 
Yemeni nobles as lieutenants to the various provinces, 
in place of the members of his own family, who had 
hitherto almost exclusively held these offices, suc- 
ceeded in quieting at least a portion of his dominions 
for a time, although his parsimony alienated the 
affections of his subjects. Hisham died in 743, and 
was followed by his nephew, Walid II., a debauched 
and extravagant prince, who commenced his career 
by squandering the treasures which his predecessor 
had saved. An anecdote is related of him, that on 
one occasion he consulted the Koran by the species 
of divination practised in the middle ages with a 
volume of Virgil, and called Sortes VirgiliancE, and 
lit upon the passage, " Disappointed shall be every 
rebel tyrant." In a rage he threw the sacred volume 
on the ground, and cried in impromptu verse — 

'' Me as a ' rebel tyrant' wouldst thou then affright? 
Yea ! for I am a rebel tyrant — thou art right ! 
And when in judgment thou before the Lord shalt stand, 
Say then that thou wert torn thus by Walid's right hand !" 

A short time afterwards, say the historians, he was 
murdered. 

The popularity which the extravagance of Walid 
II. had gained for him also induced him to try the 



24 Introductio7i. 



dangerous experiment of proclaiming one of his sons, 
then mere children, his successor. The sons of 
Hisham and of Walid I. naturally resisted this, and 
began to conspire against his authority. About the 
same time he committed a still greater mistake, and 
allowed one of the most popular leaders of the Yemenis, 
and formerly governor of Irak under Walid L, who 
was residing peaceably at Damascus, to be given up 
to, and put to death by, a political opponent. The 
Yemeni tribes rose like a man to avenge the death of 
their clansman, and with Yezid, a son of Walid I., at 
their head, attacked and slew the Caliph. This Yezid 
(III.) was then proclaimed in his stead, but only 
reigned six months. He died in 744, and was suc- 
ceeded by Merwan II., a grandson of the first Caliph 
of that name, who had been governor of Armenia 
and Azerbaijan. With a large army of disciplined 
soldiers, composed almost entirely of Modharite 
Arabs, he easily defeated a larger force of untrained 
Yemenites who had proclaimed Ibrahim, Yezid's 
brother, Caliph, and assumed the chief power. 
Merwan's strong partiality for his own (the Modhar) 
clan raised a storm of disaffection amongst the 
Yemeni Arabs ; the other factions took advantage of 
the opportunity, and simultaneous revolutions broke 
out all over the empire. His prompt and vigorous 
measures soon quieted Syria. Arabia, which had 
been overrun by the Kharegites, was almost recovered, 
when a fresh outbreak occurred which changed the 
whole current of events. 

We have hitherto not spoken much of a branch of 
Mohammed's family who were destined to play a 
very great role in the drama of Islam — Abd al 
Muttaleb's other son, Abbas, the prophet's uncle. 
Although at first he refused to embrace the new 
faith, Islam, he ultimately gave in his adherence 



Rise of the Abbasides. 25 

to it, and his son Abdallah, better known as Ibn 
Abbas, became one of the Hghts of religion, and 
the greatest authority for the reading and inter- 
pretation of the Koran. He left several children, 
but only the youngest of them, Ali, had issue, 
and it was his son Abdallah who first aspired 
to the Caliphate, and who created the Abbaside 
party. 

Mohammed made common cause with the descend- 
ants of Ali ibn Abi Talib, succeeded in getting him- 
self acknowledged Imam, or spiritual head of the 
Church, and at once commenced the dissemination of 
his doctrines in Persia. Here everything was ripe for 
revolt : the conquering Arabs lived as a military 
caste amongst the vanquished Persians, treating them 
with ignominy, holding themselves exclusively aloof 
from them, and in every way wounding their 
proud and sensitive natures. Those who had 
ostensibly professed Islam had, as we have seen, 
warmly espoused the cause of Ali and his family, and 
it is not to be wondered at that the Abbaside emis- 
saries found ready listeners amongst the former 
subjects of the Sassanian kings. Mohammed ibn 
Abbas died in 742, but his son Ibrahim was acknow- 
ledged as Imam, and the secret propaganda still 
continued as active as ever. The moment was 
favourable to a rising, for the Modhari and Yemeni 
factions were in constant and open conflict throughout 
the empire, especially in Khorassan. Ibrahim asso- 
ciated himself with one Abu Moslem, a brilliant and 
most determined soldier, of uncertain origin, but of 
great attachment to the house of Abbas, and 
appointed him his agent in Khorassan, in which 
province he had been born. About the same time a 
grandson of Zein el Abidin, the son of Husain, and 
the rightful Imam, was murdered ; Abu Moslem had 



26 Iiitrodtidion, 



the corpse buried, and ordered all his followers to 
wear black, and himself carried a black standard, as a 
token of their grief for the loss of their spiritual 
chief. From this day black was adopted as the 
colours of the Abbasides. At once the greater part 
of the population of Khorassan appeared in the 
mourning hue, showing how successful the propa- 
ganda had been ; and Abu Moslem, finding himself 
at the head of a sufficiently large army, broke out 
openly into revolt. He next sent an army into Irak. 
Kufa received him with open arms, expecting the 
house of Ali to be restored. In the meantime a letter 
from Abu Moslem to Ibrahim having been inter- 
cepted by Merwan, the Imam was killed ; not, how- 
ever, before he had contrived to send a written 
document appointing his brother Abdallah his 
successor. The latter was proclaimed Caliph at 
Kufa ; and although Merwan made a desperate 
resistance, he was beaten and hunted to death in 
Upper Egypt. The new Caliph inaugurated his 
reign by a series of cruel massacres, every member or 
partisan of the Ommiade family being put to death. 
On one occasion, having invited over seventy of them 
to his palace, and promised them an amnesty, he 
caused them to be treacherously murdered ; and 
ordering nitds, or leathern trays used in executions, to 
be spread over their bodies, mounted on the top of 
the ghastly pile and ate his meal, jeering the while at 
the death groans that came from some of his still 
gasping victims. Es Safifah, " the shedder of blood," as 
he was called, reigned a little over four years, when 
he died in 753 A.D., and was succeeded by his brother 
Abu Jaafer, surnamed Mansur. 

Persian influence was now paramount at Court, and 
Abu Moslem, the Khorassani, to whom the Abbasides 
owed their accession to power, was the most powerful 



Anecdote of Walid 11. 27 



and influential man in the kingdom. This was dis- 
tasteful to the arrogant Arabs, and the Caliph himself 
began to scheme how he could rid himself of the 
founder of the fortunes of his race. With great diffi- 
culty and consummate perjury he at last induced the 
general to visit him, entertained him. hospitably for 
some days to lull his suspicions, and when the oppor- 
tunity offered, had him barbarously murdered. 

El Mansur, a morose and avaricious prince, died in 
760, and was succeeded by his son Mohammed, 
surnamed El Mehdi. He was the very reverse of his 
father in disposition ; his vizier and principal adviser 
was Ya'kub ibn Daud, a Persian by birth and a Shiah 
by creed. Under his administration the Persians 
rose higher than ever in importance, and their indif- 
ference and even hostility to the religion of Islam 
was openly displayed. The vizier was, however, 
disgraced for neglecting to put a member of All's 
family to death, and was thrown into a dungeon, 
from which he was only released in the reign of 
Haroun Alraschid. 

In El Mehdi's reign appeared the celebrated 
impostor Al Mukanna, better knowm as " the Veiled 
Prophet of Khorassan." Mehdi died in 'jZ6, bequeath- 
ing the succession to his eldest son El Hadi, and after 
the death of the latter, to his other son Alraschid. 



HAROUN ALRASCHID. 



CHAPTER I. 

haroun's accession. 

HAROUN ALRASCHID, more properly written 
Harun er Rashid, "Aaron the Orthodox," was 
the fifth of the Abbaside caliphs of Bagdad. His 
full name was Harun 'bn Mohammed ibn Abdallah 
ibn Mohammed ibn Ali 'bn 'Abdallah ibn Abbas. 
He was born at Ray the last day of Dhi '1 Hejjah, 
145 A.H. (20th March, "jG^ A.D.), according to some 
accounts, and according to others, ist Moharrem, 149 
A.H. (15th Feb., y66 a.d.) 

Haroun was twenty-two years old when he as- 
cended the throne. His biographers unanimously 
speak of him as " the most accomplished, eloquent, 
and generous of the Caliphs;" but though his name 
is a household word, and few figures stand out more 
grandly prominent in the history of their times, little 



30 Haro7iii AlrascJiid. 

is really popularly known about his private life and 
personal history. 

I shall endeavour irr the following sketch to paint 
not only the monarch but the man ; the emperor and 
the adventurous prince, whose incognito strolls about 
Bagdad furnish some of the most humorous incidents 
of the "Arabian Nights." 

Imbued with that strict devotional spirit which is 
so characteristic of the true Mohammedans, and 
which makes their religion enter into every phase of 
their thought and mingle with every incident of their 
daily life, Haroun Alraschid was unremitting in the 
ceremonial observances of his faith. 

Every alternate year, with very {^\n exceptions, he 
made the pilgrimage to Mecca, or he prosecuted a 
"Holy War" against the enemies of Islam. His 
pilgrimages were always performed on foot, and when 
we consider the distance between Bagdad and Mecca, 
and the inhospitable nature of the arid desert through 
which he had to travel, this fact alone will give some 
idea of the indomitable energy and perseverance of 
his character. He was the only Caliph who ever 
imposed upon himself so austere a duty, and he was 
perhaps the only one who ever condemned himself to 
the performance of a hundred prostrations with his 
daily prayers. Upon his pilgrimages he was always 
accompanied by a hundred doctors learned in the law, 
together with their sons ; and in the years that he 



Harotin aiid the Blind Pod. 



did not visit Mecca himself, he performed the pilgrim- 
age vicariously, sending three hundred men for that 
purpose at his own expense, and providing them with 
magnificent equipments for the journey. His piety 
was no doubt sincere, but there is good reason to believe 
that it was in a great measure due to his desire to 

" Compound for sins he was inclined to, 
By damning those he had no mind to." 

Save in his lavish generosity, he much resembled 
his predecessor, Mansur, and, like him, took great 
delight in literature, especially poetry, and in the 
society of learned men. 

. It is related that Haroun Alraschid one day gave a 
great entertainment, to which Abu 'Atahiyeh, a blind 
poet, was invited. After dinner the Caliph said to 
the poet, " Give us a description of the happiness 
and prosperity which we enjoy." Whereupon Abu 
'Atahiyeh sang : — 

" Right happy may thy life be made, 
Safe in the lofty castle's shade !" 

" Bravo !" said Haroun. 

" And every morn and eve may all 
Thy every slightest wish forestall !" 



"Excellent!" said the Commander of the Faithful. 

*' But when thy latest struggling sighs, 
With rattlings in the breast arise. 
Then shalt thou of a surety know 
'Tis all deception here below !" 



32 Haroun Alraschid. 

On hearing this the Cahph burst into tears, and El 
Fadhl, the son of Yahya the Grand Vizier, of whom 
we shall have a great deal to say in the course of our 
narrative, turned to the poet, and said, in a tone of 
remonstrance — " The Commander of the Faithful 
sent for you to amuse him, and you have only made 
him sad." " Nay," said Alraschid, " leave him 
alone ; he only saw that we were growing blind, and 
did not wish to make us more so/' 

Haroun was remarkable for the deference which he 
paid to men of letters. Abu Mu'awiyeh, a learned 
doctor, and also blind, was one day dining with the 
Caliph, when some one brought round a basin and 
ewer, and poured water on his hands, after the 
Eastern fashion. Abu Mu'awiyeh, being blind, did 
not of course perceive who it was that had paid him 
this attention, until Haroun Alraschid owned that 
he himself had waited on him. "Oh, Commander of 
the Faithful!" exclaimed the savant, "I suppose you 
do this byway of showing honour to learning!" 
" Just so," replied the Caliph. 

Alraschid owed his own succession to the throne 
entirely to the prudence and sagacity of Yahya 'bn 
Khalid ibn Barmek, his secretary, and afterwards 
his Grand Vizier when Caliph. According to the 
Mohammedan law of succession, the eldest brother 
or male relative of the reigning monarch is the heir- 
apparent to the throne, and almost all Moslem princes 



Yahya Remonstrates with El Hadi. 33 

liave endeavoured to set aside the claims of their 
relatives in favour of their own children. 

El Hadi was no exception to the rule, and con- 
ceived the idea of stripping his brother Haroun of 
his rights, and proclaiming his own son Jaafer as 
his successor. Yahya, the Barmecide, was then 
Haroun's secretary, and expected to exercise the 
I Important ojffice of Vizier if ever his master should 
1 tount the throne. Hadi saw that his first step must 
b'i to conciliate Yahya ; he therefore took him apart, 
nd having given him a present of 20,000 dinars, 
•' igan to broach the subject nearest his heart. Yahya, 
1 owever, brought a very strong argument to bear 
V Don the point : — " If you do so, Prince of the Faith- 
■ il," said he, "you will set your subjects an example 
of breaking an oath and disregarding a contract, and 
o<her people will be bold enough to do the same. 
But if you leave your brother Haroun in possession 
ct' his title of heir-apparent, and appoint your son 
lafer as next in succession to him, it will be much 
xi'ore likely to secure his ultimate accession to the 
throne." Hadi allowed the matter to rest for some 
time, but at length paternal affection got the better 
of him, and he again summoned Yahya into his 
presence and consulted him. Yahya urged that if 
the Caliph should die while Jaafer was yet a child, the 
; hiefs of the imperial family would never recognise 
t.'ie validity of his succession. Hadi having acknow- 



S4 Haroun Alrascki^ :i^. 

''"^^ 

ledged the truth of this, Yahya continued, " Renounce 
then this project, in order the better to arrive at the 
consummation of your wishes. Even if your father, 
El Mehdi, had not appointed Haroun to succeed you, 
it would be policy on your part to do so, inasmuch as 
that is the only way to ensure the continuance of the 
Caliphate in the family of the Beni Hashem." 

Hadi, finding that he could not alter Yahya':- 
opinion, threw him into prison, and displayed sc 
much animosity to his brother himself that the lattei 
sought safety in flight. 

Hadi's rage then turned against Haroun's mother, 
Kheizaran, whom he Endeavoured to poison ; but she, 
learning of his intention, bribed some of his own slave 
girls to smother him as he slept. 

This took place on the 15 th September, A.D. y^t. 
The same night, one of Haroun^s partisans, namec 
Khuzeimat ibn Khazim, came to Jaafer (the youn^ 
prince for whom El Hadi had wished to supplant 
Haroun) as he lay in bed, and threatened to cu: 
off his head unless he renounced all rights to the 
Caliphate. The boy, taken by surprise, consented 
and in the morning Khuzeimat took him out, and, 
presenting him before the people, compelled him 
repeat publicly his abdication, and absolve the peopl 
from their oath of allegiance to him. 

Yahya 'bn Khalid was still in prison whf: 
Hadi died ; and, had not this event taken plac , 



Haroun Accedes to the Throne. 35 

would in all probability have been put to death 
himself. 

The news having been brought to Haroun of his 
brother's death, and of his own accession to the 
throne, the new Caliph at once sent for Yahya, and 
invested him with the office of Grand Vizier. The 
form of words employed 4n the investment gave the 
new minister plenary power. " I invest you," said 
Haroun, "with the rule over my subjects. Rule them 
as you please ; depose whom you will, and put whom 
you will into office ;" and in ratification of his words 
he gave him his ring. 

Some say that Haroun was asleep in bed, and that 
Yahya came to him and woke him up by saying, 
*'Get up, oh Prince of the Faithful." " Why do you 
keep startling me by alluding to my accession to the 
Caliphate 1 What do you think Hadi will say if he 
hears of it .?" Yahya then told him of Hadi's death, 
and gave him the deceased Caliph's ring. While he 
was yet speaking, another messenger came in, and 
told him of the birth of a son, to whom he gave then 
and there the name of Abdallah ; this was the one 
that was afterwards called El Mamun. His second 
son. El Emin, was born in the month wShawwal of the 
same year by another mother. 

His first act, after praying over the remains of El 
Hadi, was to put one Abu Tsma to death. Abu 
Tsma was walking out one day with Jaafer, Hadi's 



36 Harotin Ah^asckid. 

son, and happening to meet Haroun in a narrow 
archway in the city of Isabad, exclaimed, " Make 
way for the heir-apparent." Haroun replied, with 
mock humility, " To hear is to obey, where the prince 
is concerned," and stood aside until Jaafer had passed 
by. This speech cost Abu Tsma his life. 

Haroun at once set out for Bagdad ; and when he 
had entered the city, and reached the bridge called 
Jisr el Ghawwasin,^ he said, " El Mehdi had given me 
this signet-ring, which he had bought for a hundred 
thousand dinars, and which was called El Jebel.^ 
One day a messenger from Hadi came to me, and 
demanded it while I was standing on this very spot;" 
and as he spoke he threw it in the water. Some of 
the bystanders, however, dived in after it and fetched 
it up, to the Caliph's great delight. 

Haroun's reign derives its lustre from the eminent 
men by whom he was surrounded, and the consum- 
mate ability with which, for the first seventeen years, 
the office of Vizier or Prime Minister was exercised 
by Yahya the Barmecide. 

We must say a few words both on the nature of 
the office and the origin of Yahya's family. 

We have seen how the Arabs, perforce, left the 
actual administration of the conquered countries in 

^ The Diver's Bridge. 

2 El Jebel means the mountain ; so the name of the celebrated 
diamond, Koh-i-nur, means " Mountain of light." 



Office of Vizier. 3;r 

the hands of native officials. The Abbasides owing 
their rise entirely to Persian influence, it was only 
natural that Persian counsels should prevail, and we 
accordingly find a minister of Persian extraction at 
the head of affairs, and the Caliphate carried on by 
almost precisely the same machinery as that by 
which the Empire of the Sassanians was governed. 

Like the Sassanian emperors, the Caliph was not 
only the divinely appointed ruler, but the embodi- 
ment of the Government itself His word was 
literally law, and his caprice might at any moment 
overturn the most careful calculations of the ministers, 
or deprive them of life, power, or liberty, during the 
performance of their most active duties, or at a 
most critical juncture. It was very seldom, however, 
that this awful personage condescended to trouble 
himself about the actual details of the executive 
Government. The Vizier, ^ as the word implies, was 
the one who bore the real burden of the State, and 
it was both his interest and that of the people at 
large to keep the Caliph himself as inactive as 
possible, and to reduce him, in fact, to the position 
of a mere puppet. The office of Caliphate was often 
filled by men who were mere puppets, the real power 
being vested in the Grand Vizier, who made and 
managed them. 

^ Vizier, in Arabic Wazir, means " One who bears a burden." 



^S Ha7'0U7i Alraschid, 

Thus, on the death of El Muktafi, in 908 A.D., his 
Vizier wished to set Abdallah ibn Mo'tazz on the 
throne ; but some courtiers, more wise than the rest, 
warned him that the proposed prince was well 
versed in literature, and would be likely to know too 
much. 

" What need is there for you," they said, " to set 
on the throne of the Caliphate one who knows its 
measure and its price, who understands affairs, and 
can distinguish good from bad, and knows your 
garden and your estate ? You had better set a boy 
upon the throne, that he may have the name of 
Caliph and you the meaning thereof. You can 
educate him, and when he is grown up, he will 
owe all to you, and you can have your will during 
his ministry." So the Vizier substituted El Muktadir, 
who was then only thirteen years old. 

Yahya's father, Khalid, the son of Barmek, belonged 
to the old Persian aristocracy, the Dehkans or landed 
proprietors, the ancient feudal lords of the country, 
whose ancestry dated back to the ancient and most 
briUiant period of the Persian Empire. Khalid's 
father was the Barmek, or guardian of the chief fire 
temple in Persia ; and Khalid himself, who had 
ostensibly embraced Mohammedanism, but who was 
still devoted to the ancient faith and traditions of 
his country, attached himself to Abu Moslem, and 
became one of the foremost men in the movement 



Sagacity of Yahya 'bn Barmek. 39 

which overthrew the Ommiade throne. On the 
accession to power of the Abbaside dynasty, he 
quickly rose to the highest office in the State, and 
was Vizier to Es Saffah, and after him to Man.ur, 
the second Caliph of the dynasty. 

El Masudi, the historian, relates the following 
anecdote of his prudence and sagacity : — " Being 
sent by Abu Moslem to accompany the expedition 
against the governor of Irak, he and the general 
halted to take breakfast at a village on the way, 
when suddenly a herd of gazelles rushed from the 
desert, and ran into the camp amongst the soldiers. 

* General !' exclaimed Khalid, * order the men to 
mount at once.' Seeing no cause for alarm, the 
latter asked him what he meant. Khalid replied, 

* The enemy are close upon us ; nothing but the 
march of a large force would have driven these wild 
creatures from the desert into our camp.'" The 
troops were scarcely mounted, before an advancing 
hostile squadron was seen in the distance, and the 
truth of Khalid's deduction proved. 

On his accession to the throne, Alraschid appointed 
Yahya 'bn Khalid ibn Barmek his lieutenant and 
Grand Vizier. Yahya, upon whom the whole respon- 
sibility of the Government really devolved, performed 
his duties with the most consummate ability and 
judgment. He fortified the frontiers and repaired all 
the deficiencies in the administration of the empire. 



40 Harozin Alraschid, 

He filled the treasury, made the provinces flourishing 
and prosperous by encouraging trade and securing 
the public safety, and, in a word, brought the Cali- 
phate up to the highest pitch of prosperity and 
glo'^y. He personally superintended and organised 
the whole system of government. As a minister, he 
was eloquent, wise, accomplished, and prudent, and 
he was, moreover, an able administrator, ruling with 
a firm hand, and proving himself able to cope with 
any emergency that might arise. 

With a most affable demeanour and great modera- 
tion, he combined an imposing dignity that com- 
manded universal respect. His generosity was 
munificent in the extreme, and gained for him 
universal encomiums. 

Yahya had two sons, El Fadhl and Jaafer : the 
former was associated with his father in his minis- 
terial duties, and acquired the nickname of the "Little 
Vizier." 

One day, Haroun asked Yahya how it was that 
people called El Fadhl by this name, and never gave 
it to Jaafer. " Because," said Yahya, " Fadhl acts as 
my deputy." " Well," replied the Caliph, " give 
Jaafer, too, some of the same offices as you entrust 
to his brother." "I cannot," answered the father; 
" his attention is too much occupied with your service 
and society." Yahya did, however, give Jaafer the 
post of secretary and controller of the Imperial 



El Fadhl and yaafer. 41 

Household, and people henceforward called him by 
the same sobriquet as his brother. 

On another occasion, Alraschid wished to take the 
office of Privy Seal from El Fadhl and to ^iv^ it to 
Jaafer ; but not liking to propose it himself, he 
requested their father to write and make known his 
wishes. Yahya, in consequence of this intimation, 
wrote to his eldest son as follows : — " The Prince of 
the Faithful — may God exalt his rule ! — has ordered 
you to transfer the signet-ring from your right hand 
to your left." El Fadhl replied, " I have obeyed the 
Prince of the Faithful's orders concerning my brother. 
No prosperity that accrues to him is lost to me, and 
no rank that he attains is forfeited by me." Jaafer, 
when he saw this response, was delighted with his 
brother's affection, discernment, and wit. 

Jaafer's position was a most responsible one, it 
being his duty to draw up and sign all the orders 
to the various officers throughout the whole empire, 
and to deliberate and decide upon all memorials and 
petitions presented to the Caliph, which often 
amounted to many hundreds daily. 

El Fadhl was Haroun's foster brother, a tie that is 
considered in Moslem countries almost as near as 
blood relationship itself; he was, however, of an 
austere disposition. 

Jaafer, the youngest of the two brothers, was, on 
the contrary, distinguished for his eloquence, his 



42 Haroun Alraschid. 

high intellectual attainments, his generosity, and tche 
gentleness of his disposition. Haroun Alraschiu' 
consequently preferred the company of Jaafer to that 
of his brother El Fadhl, and the two became the 
most intimate friends. He was the constant com- 
panion of the Caliph's hours of pleasure, and often 
the hour of early morning prayer came round and 
found Haroun and Jaafer with Abu Nawas, the jester 
poet, and Mesrur, the black executioner, still over 
their cups. 

The following anecdotes will illustrate the character 
of the father and his sons better than pages of 
description : — 

After the fall of the Barmek family, Haroun for- 
bade the poets to write elegies upon them, imposing 
severe penalties upon anyone who should act contrary 
to this regulation. It so happened that some of the 
night-watch were passing by one of the ruined 
palaces which had formerly belonged to the unfor- 
tunate family, when they came upon a man with 
a strip of paper in his hand containing an elegy 
upon the Barmeks, which he was reciting, weeping as 
he did so. The watch arrested him, and took him 
before Alraschid, to whom he at once acknowledged 
the fact. "Did you not know of my prohibition.'*" 
said the Caliph. " I '11 make an example of you ; 

I '11 " " If your Majesty will hear my story first," 

said the prisoner, " you may do what you please." 



Anecdote of the Barmek Family, 43 

" Go on," said Haroun. " Formerly," commenced the 
poet, " I was one of the least of Yahya 'bn Khalid's 
clerks. One day the Vizier said to me, ' I wish you 
to entertain me at your house sometime or other.' I 
replied, ' Oh, my lord ! I am not deserving of such 
an honour, and my house is quite unfit for you.' 
And as he would take no denial, I asked for a year's 
delay, that I might make fitting preparations ; but he 
would not allow me more than a few months. So I 
set about my preparations, and as soon as they were 
completed to the best of my ability, I informed the 
minister that I was ready to receive him. The next 
day he came to me with his two sons, Jaafer and 
El Fadhl, and a few of his private suite. Then he 
stopped his horse at my door and alighted ; ' Now 
then,' said he, ' I am hungry ; make haste and 
get me something to eat.' And his son El Fadhl 
whispered, ' He likes roast fowl ; bring whatever you 
have got as soon as possible.' So I went in and 
got the dinner ready. When the Vizier had finished 
eating, he got up and walked about the place, and 
then said suddenly, ' Now then, sir, show me all over 
your house.' I answered, * This is my house, my 
lord; I have no other.' ' Oh yes, you have,' said he ; 
*you have another.' I assured him that it was the 
only one I possessed, whereupon he called for some 
masons, and when they appeared, he commanded 
them to break open a door in the wall. On this I 



44 Haroiui A Iras chid. 

remonstrated, and said, ' Oh, my lord, how can I 
break into my neighbour's house, when God has 
commanded us to respect our neighbours' rights ?' 
* Never mind,' said he ; and when the door was made, 
we all went through it, and came into a beautiful 
garden well planted with fruit and flowers, with 
fountains bubbling up, and summer-houses, and 
dwellings, and everything that could delight the 
eye. The house itself was beautifully furnished, and 
filled with servants and slave girls — everything on a 
most magnificent scale. * This house,' said the Vizier, 
' and all belonging to it, is yours.' Then I kissed 
his hands, and prayed for blessings on him, and he 
turned to his son Jaafer and said, ' How is he to 
keep up this establishment, my boy.?' and Jaafer 
said, ' I will give him such and such an estate, and 
make out the conveyance of it to him immediately.' 
Then Yahya turned to El Fadhl and said, * What is 
he to do, my boy, for ready money until he receives 
the revenues of his estate.' ' Oh,' said El Fadhl, * I 
will give him ten thousand dinars, and bring them 
to him myself.' ' Well, rnake haste then,' said their 
father, 'both of you.' They were as good as their 
word, and I entered into possession of the house and 
the estate, and received the ready cash, and have 
made a large fortune with it over and above what 
they gave me, and I enjoy it now ; and, God knows, 
oh. Prince of the Faithful, I have never lost an oppor- 



. Yahyds Maxims, 45 

tunity of showing my gratitude to them, although I 
never can repay the obligations I owe them ; and if 
you like to kill me for that, you can ; so do as you 
like!" 

Alraschid was touched at the man's story, and had 
the common humanity to let him go ; he also from 
that day removed his prohibition, and allowed the 
poets to write elegies on the beloved but unfortunate 
family. 

Many profound maxims are attributed to Yahya ; 
amongst others, he is reported to have said, *' No 
one ever addressed me that I did not listen to with 
respect. When he had finished speaking, my respect 
for him had either increased or vanished altogether." 

Another of his sayings was, " Promises are the nets 
of the generous with which they catch the praises of 
the good." 

Whenever he rode abroad, he always took with 
him purses containing each a hundred dirhems, for 
distribution to those whom he might meet. 

Jaafer and El Fadhl kept up the family tradition 
for liberality. 

A coolness and estrangement had for a long time 
existed between Jaafer and the Viceroy of Egypt. 
It happened that a certain man forged a letter in 
Jaafer's name, containing strong recommendation of 
the bearer to the Viceroy. The latter, on receiving 
it, was delighted at what he thought an advance 



46 Haroun A Iras chid. 

towards reconciliation on Jaafer's part, and received 
and entertained the bearer of the letter with great 
cordiality and hospitality. But having some doubts 
as to the authenticity of the document, he sent it to 
his agent in Bagdad, with instructions to find out 
the truth. The agent consulted with Jaafer's agent, 
who showed it to his master. Jaafer took the letter 
in his hand, and at once recognising the imposture, 
threw it among his officers and attendants who were 
present, asking them if that was his writing. They 
all immediately declared it to be a forgery, and 
Jaafer asked what ought to be done in the case of 
a man who had thus taken liberties with his name. 
Some declared that he ought to be put to death as 
an example to deter others from such an act in 
future ; others said he should have his right hand 
cut off; others, again, thought he should receive a 
good scourging, and be dismissed. The most merciful 
of them all suggested that he should be simply sent 
back, and that his having had all the long journey 
from Bagdad to Egypt for nothing would be 
sufficient punishment. Jaafer listened patiently to 
their opinions, and when they had finished, " What," 
said he, "is there not one man of good feeling 
amongst you } You all know the bad terms which 
I have been on with the Viceroy of Egypt, and that 
it is only pride which has prevented us from making 
advances towards reconciliation. Here is a man 



Jaafer and the Viceroy of Egypt. 47 

vhom God has raised up to open the door of 
.econcihation and correspondence, and to put an 
end to our enmity, and you advise me to reward him 
by doing him a mischief!" Then he took a pen and 
wrote on the back of the letter — " To the Viceroy of 
Egypt. Good God, how could you think that my 
letter was a forgery. It is my own handwriting, and 
the bearer is one of my most intimate friends. I 
hope you will treat him well, and send him back to 
me as soon as possible, for I am very anxious for his 
•eturn." 

When the Viceroy saw the Vizier's note on the 
back of the letter, he was very pleased, and heaped 
'avours and presents on the man who had brought 
lim the letter. The latter came back to Bagdad 
in most flourishing circumstances, and, presenting 
himself before Jaafer, fell down at his feet and 
wept, confessed the whole imposture, and begged 
for pardon. Jaafer asked him what the Viceroy 
of Egypt had given him, and hearing that he had 
received a hundred thousand dinars, he added a 
present of the same sum on his own account, and 
dismissed him. 

They relate, too, that one day Jaafer had invited 
his intimate friends and boon companions, and deter- 
mined to stay at home for a drinking bout. The 
apartment was profusely decorated, all the guests 
but one were assembled, dressed, as was their wont 



48 HarGU7i Alraschid. 

on these occasions, in robes of divers brilliant colours; 
the wine was circulating freely, and the room rang 
with the notes of musical instruments and the voices 
of the singers. The guest who had nqt yet arrived 
was called Abd el Melik ibn Salih, and Jaafer had 
given strict orders not to admit anyone else on any 
pretext whatsoever. It so happened that one of the 
Caliph's near relations, one Abd el Melik ibn Salih 
ibn Ali 'bn 'Abdallah ibn Abbas, called to see Jaafer 
on some important business, and the porters, deceived 
by the similarity in names, at once admitted him. 
Now this other Abd el Melik ibn Salih was a person 
of most austere character and rigid morals, and 
although Jaafer had frequently tried to induce him 
to take part in one of his debauches, he had always 
persistently refused. On his admission into the room, 
both the visitor and his host perceived the situation 
at a glance; Jaafer was much embarrassed, but Abd el 
Melik was secretly pleased, and made up his mind to 
take advantage of the accident. In order to put 
Jaafer at his ease, he called for a parti -coloured 
robe, and joined with zest in the conversation, even 
drinking copious draughts of wine. Jaafer, delighted 
at having overcome the scruples of the great man, 
asked him what business it was that brought him 
there. " I came to beg your good offices with the 
Caliph," said Abd el Melik, " in three things. The 
first is, that I owe a million dirhems which I wish 



Anecdotes of Jaafer, 49 

to pay ; the second, that I want for my son the 
governorship of a province befitting his rank; thirdly, 
I wish to marry my son to the daughter of the 
Cahph, who is his cousin, and for whom he would 
be a suitable match." " God has granted you all 
three," said Jaafer. "As for the money, I will send 
it to your house this moment ; as for the province, I 
will make your son Governor of Egypt ; as for the 
marriage, I hereby betroth the lady so and so, 
daughter of the Prince of the F'aithful, to him, with 
a dowry of such and such a sum. So now be off, and 
God bless you !" 

When Abd el Melik reached his own home, he 
found the money there before him, and the next 
morning Jaafer sought the Caliph, and obtained the 
ratification of his appointment of Abd el Melik's 
son to the Governorship of Egypt, and induced the 
Caliph to consent to the youth's marriage with the 
princess. 

Ishdk ibn Ibrahim el Mosili relates — " I had 
brought up a damsel of great beauty, and educated 
her with such care that she had become unusually 
accomplished, then I made a present of her to El 
Fadhl, Yahya's son. El Fadhl, however, said to me, 
' Oh, Ishak, the envoy of the Governor of Egypt 
has just been to ask me a particular favour. Keep 
this slave girl by you ; I will tell him that I 
have taken a great fancy to her, and he, in 



50 liaroun Ahaschid. 

order to persuade me to accede to his request, 
will try and get her for me. But when he asks the 
price, be sure not to let her go for less than 50,000 
dinars.' So I went home," continued Ishak, "and 
the envoy came to me, and asked me about the girl, 
and I brought her out, and he offered me 10,000 dinars. 
This sum I refused, and he went as high as 20,000, 
and then to 30,000. When he offered this price, I 
could not contain myself any longer, but cried ' Done,' 
handed him over the girl, and received the money. 
The next morning I went to El Fadhl, and told him 
just how it had happened. He only smiled and said, 
* The ambassador from Room (the Byzantine Empire) 
has also asked a great favour of me. I will impose 
the same conditions on him ; so take your slave girl 
home and wait for him, and be sure not to take 
less than 50,000 dinars.' Precisely the same thing 
happened with the envoy from Room ; the very 
sound of the offer of 30,000 dinars was too much 
for me, and I sold him the girl. On the morrow, 
I went to El Fadhl, and he again gave me back 
the girl, telling me he would send me the am- 
bassador from Khorassan the next morning. He 
was as good as his word, and this time I screwed 
up my courage sufficiently to demand 40,000 dinars. 
The next day I went to El Fadhl, and on his asking 
me what I had done, I said, * I sold the damsel for 
40,000 dinars, and, by Heaven, when I heard the 



Anecdotes of Jaafer. 51 

amount mentioned, I almost lost my senses. She 
has brought me — may I be your ransom ! — a hundred 
thousand dinars, and I have nothing further to desire. 
God reward you.' Then he ordered the girl to be 
brought out and given to me, and told me to take 
her away. So I said, * This girl is the greatest 
blessing in the w^orld;' and I emancipated her, 
and married her, and she is the mother of my 
children." 

His brother El Fadhl was no less generous. Mo- 
hammed ibn Ibrahim, surnamed the Imdni^ a grandson 
of Mohammed ibn Ali 'bn 'Abdallah ibn Abbas, came 
to El Fadhl one day, bringing a case filled with 
jewels. " My income," said he, " is not sufficient for 
my wants, and I already owe more than a million 
dirhems. I am ashamed to let anybody know my 
circumstances, and I do not like to apply to any 
merchant, although I have here a sufficient security. 
You have merchants who deal with you ; may I 
beg of you to borrow the sum in question for me 
on these jewels V " With pleasure," said El Fadhl ; 
" but on condition that you stay with me all 
day." Mohammed consented, and El Fadhl took the 
case just as it was sealed up with its owner's seal, 
and sent it, together with a million dirhems, to 
Mohammed's, telling the messenger to bring back a 
receipt for it. Mohammed stayed with El Fadhl 
till the evening, and, on returning home, was both 



52 Haromi Alraschid. 

surprised and delighted at finding his jewel-case and 
the money. Early the next morning, he set off to 
El Fadhl's house to thank him, but he found that 
he had already started to make a call upon the 
Caliph. Mohammed followed him to the palace ; 
but as soon as El Fadhl heard of his arrival there, 
he went out by another door to avoid him, and made 
for his father's house. When Mohammed learnt 
where he had gone, he followed him, but El Fadhl 
had left before he reached the door, and had gone 
home, where at length the two met. Mohammed 
began to express his gratitude, and told him how he 
had started out early in order to thank him for his 
generosity, when El Fadhl replied, " I thought over 
your business, and I saw that the million I had sent 
you would only just pay your debts, and that you 
would be as badly in want of money as ever, and be 
obliged to run in debt again. So I went off early to 
see the Commander of the Faithful, and I explained 
your circumstances to him, and obtained another 
million for you. The reason I went out of another 
door to avoid you was that I did not wish to meet 
you until I had sent the money to your house ; but 
it has gone now." "How shall I ever repay you.-^" 
said Mohammed. " The only way I can show my 
gratitude is to engage myself by the most sacred 
oath never to pay court to anyone but you, and 
never to ask a favour of anyone else." This oath he 



Ha7'ouns Patronage of Literahtre. 53 

actually took, reduced it to writing, and caused it to 
be properly witnessed. 

When, sometime afterwards, the Barmek family 
were ruined and disgraced, and El Fadhl ibn er Rabi 
held the office of Vizier, Mohammed again got into 
difficulties, and was recommended to apply to the 
new minister. Mindful, however, of his oath, he 
refused to ask or accept a favour at anyone's hand 
until his death. 

Haroun's own unbounded liberality, especially to 
poets, lawyers, and divines, naturally earned for him 
the gratitude of these classes, and contributed no 
little to the reputation for justice and clemency 
which he enjoyed, but which his history shows him 
to have so little deserved. 

No Caliph ever gathered round him so great a 
number of learned men, poets, jurists, grammarians, 
cadis, and scribes, to say nothing of the wits and 
musicians who enjoyed his patronage. Personally, 
too, he had every quality that could recommend him 
to the literary men of his time. Haroun himself was 
an accomplished scholar and an excellent poet : he 
was well versed in history, tradition, and poetry, 
which he could always quote on appropriate occasions. 
He possessed exquisite taste and unerring discern- 
ment, and his dignified demeanour made him an 
object of profound respect to high and low. 

It is no wonder then that all contemporary writers 



54 Harotin Alraschid, 

are extravagant in his praises, and endeavour to con- 
ceal the darker side of his character. 

Later authors we might expect to be less favourable 
in their criticisms ; but it must be remembered that 
the reign of Alraschid was one of the most brilliant 
in the annals of the Caliphate, and the limits of the 
empire were then more widely extended than at any 
other period ; that the greater part of the Eastern 
world and a large portion of Western Africa sub- 
mitted to his laws, and paid tribute into his treasury; 
and that the city of Bagdad was then at the height 
of its splendour and magnificence ; whereas, immedi- 
ately after his death, the city began to lose its 
importance, the provinces fell away from the empire 
one by one, and the power of the Caliphs themselves 
rapidly declined. This was an additional reason for 
Moslem writers to look back with admiration and 
regret upon the period of greatness and prosperity, 
and to keep up the tradition of the magnificence of 
his reign. 

Of his real character the events described in the 
following chapters will enable us to judge. 



CHAPTER II. 

"THE GOLDEN PRIME." 

THE city of Damascus, full as it was of memorials 
of the pride and greatness of the Ommiade 
dynasty, was naturally distasteful to the Abbasides. 
The Caliph Mansur had commenced the building 
of a new capital in the neighbourhood of Kufa, to be 
called after the founder of his family, Hashimiyeh. 
The Kufans, however, were devoted partisans of the 
descendants of Ali, and although there had as yet been 
no actual breach between them and the Abbasides, 
neither party could forget that it was by a trick that 
the AHdes had been deprived of the advantages of the 
insurrection which had been excited in their name, and 
that it was on the strength of the Alide claims that 
the Abbasides had mounted to power. The growing 
jealousy and distrust between the two houses made 
it inadvisable for the Beni Abbas to plant the seat 
of their empire in immediate propinquity to the 
head-quarters of the Ali faction, and Mansur there- 
fore selected another site. This was Bagdad, on 



56 Haroun Alraschid. 

the western bank of the Tigris. It was well suited 
by nature for a great capital. The Tigris brought 
commerce from Diyar Bekr on the north, and 
through the Persian Gulf from India and China on 
the east; while the Euphrates, which here approaches 
the Tigris at the nearest point, and is reached by 
a good road, communicated directly with Syria and 
the west. The name Bagdad is a very ancient one, 
signifying " given or founded by the deity," and 
testifies to the importance of the site. The new city 
rapidly increased in extent and magnificence, the 
founder and his next two successors expending 
fabulous sums upon its embellishment, and the 
ancient palaces of the Sassasian kings, as well as 
the other principal cities of Asia, were robbed of 
their works of art for its adornment. 

Here, in the midst of the most amazing pomp and 
luxury, with an empire which extended from the 
confines of India and Tartary to the shores of the 
Atlantic Ocean, with illimitable resources at his 
command, with absolutely despotic power, and sur- 
rounded by all the brightest wit and learning that the 
age could afford, lived the Caliph Haroun Alraschid. 

But the very extent of the empire, and the impossi- 
bility of centralising the authority, so as not to afford 
opportunity to ambitious or unscrupulous governors 
either to assert their own independence or to oppress 
the people for their private aggrandisement, made 



Revolt of Yahya 'bn Abdallah. 57 

the reign of Haroun Alraschid a very stirring one, in 
a military sense. 

Scarcely a year passed without a revolution in one 
or other of the provinces. The various opposing 
parties were all as actively hostile as ever : in Syria 
and Mesopotamia, the sympathy with the Ommiades, 
in Khorassan, the undying hostility to Arab rule and 
Arab faith, and everywhere dissatisfaction at the 
extortions and oppression of the provincial governors, 
were active sources of trouble to the government of 
the Caliph. 

-"^IlXs. order to show what the state of the empire was, 
and the relation of the various provinces to the 
central government, it will be necessary to enumerate 
a few of the principal of these insurrectionary move- 
ments. 

The fifth year of Alraschid's reign, A.D. 791, was 
disturbed by the revolt of Yahya 'bn Abdallah, a 
lineal descendent of Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin, son- 
in-law, and successor of Mohammed. The fate of 
his brothers, En Nafs ez Zakiyeh and Ibrahim, during 
a former reign, had naturally inspired Yahya 'bn 
Abdallah with considerable fears for his own safety, 
and he therefore took refuge in Deilem, A.ii. 175. 
There his claims to the Imamate — that is, to the 
exercise by divine right of the highest authority in 
Islam — were speedily recognised by the populace, 
who proclaimed him the legitimate Caliph. A large 



58 Haroim Alraschid. 

number of people soon began to flock to his standard 
from ail quarters, and the movement presently- 
assumed such threatening proportions, that Haroun 
Alraschid was obliged to resort to active measures of 
repression. He accordingly despatched El Fadhl, 
son of Yahya his Prime Minister, with an army 
of fifty thousand men against the insurgents, and 
appointed him Governor of Jorjan, Taberistan, and 
Rye. Yahya marched with his army to within a 
short distance of the head-quarters of Yahya 'bn 
Abdallah, and probably fearing the effect of the 
religious enthusiasm of the enemy's troops — since 
the rebel chief was a lineal descendant of AH, and 
therefore legitimate head of the Shiah sect, to which 
almost all Persians belonged — he abstained from 
giving him battle, and entered into negotiations for 
a peaceful settlement. Yahya 'bn Abdallah at length 
yielded to the specious promises of the envoy of the 
Abbaside Caliph, and agreed to capitulate, on condi- 
tion that Alraschid would give him an autograph letter 
of amnesty, signed by the Cadis or magistrates, and 
the Fakihs or legal officers of the Empire, as wit- 
nesses. To this the Caliph, who was much annoyed 
at the pretensions of his rival, and at the success 
which had hitherto attended him, consented, and an 
amnesty, couched in the most unreserved terms, was 
forwarded to him, signed not only by the officers just 
mentioned, but by the elders of the Royal House 



Treachery tozvards Yahya ' bn Abdallah. 59 

of the Beni Hashem, to which Alraschid belonged. 
This letter, accompanied by rich presents, induced 
the Pretender to go with El Fadhl to Bagdad, and 
on his arrival he was received by the Caliph with 
the greatest cordiality. He had not been at the 
capital, however, for many days, before Alraschid had 
him thrown into prison, and summoned a council of 
the legal officers of the State to deliberate upon the 
validity of the amnesty. Some of them, to their 
honour be it said, maintained that a document so 
solemnly ratified must remain in force ; but others, 
to curry the Imperial favour, declared that it was 
null and void, and their opinion was of course eagerly 
adopted. 

When a sovereign requires an excuse for punishing 
a subject, there is always some wretch willing to 
perjure himself in order to get himself into favour 
by bringing a false accusation against the obnoxious 
individual, and so it was in the case of Yahya 'bn 
Abdallah. 

A certain man of the family of Zobeir ibn Awwam 
traduced Yahya to Alraschid, and declared that, since 
he had received the letter of amnesty, he had been 
conspiring and endeavouring to collect another army, 
with the intention of again unfurling the standard of 
revolt at the first opportunity. 

The Caliph at once sent for the prisoner, con- 
fronted him with the Zobeiri, and demanded of him 



6o Harou7t Alrasckid. 

if there was any truth in the charges which the latter 
had made against him. Yahya indignantly denied 
them, and dared his accuser to repeat the calumnies 
on his oath. The Zobeiri, however, professed his readi- 
ness to do so, and commenced to say, " By God, who 

seeketh out and punisheth the guilty ;" but before 

he could finish the oath, Yahya interrupted him. 
"Stop!" said he; "let that oath alone; for God 
never hastens to punish man when he glorifies Him. 
Swear it rather by the oath of clearance, the greatest 
oath there is, where one declares oneself clear of the 
'strength and power of God,' and relies ever after 
upon his own strength and power if such and such is 
the case." 

The accuser trembled on hearing this formula. 
"What an outrageous oath!" said he; "I will not 
swear it." "What is the meaning of this refusal.-*" 
asked the Caliph. " If you are telling the truth, what 
have you to fear from the oath .-*" The wretched 
man, knowing what he had to expect if he confessed 
to having told a lie, thus both baulking the Caliph 
of his revenge, and conveying the impression that 
the monarch had himself suborned him, or at least 
connived at his false testimony, determined to take 
the oath required of him, and thus sealed the death- 
warrant of Yahya. 

Here the historians relate a signal instance of 
divine retribution. Scarcely had the Zobeiri left the 



Omar ibn Mehran sent to Egypt, 6i 

assembly, when he stumbled against something in the 
way, and so injured himself in falling, that he died 
before the day was out. When they came to bury 
him, the earth with which they attempted to fill up 
the tomb mysteriously sank away as fast as they 
threw it in, and they could not succeed in filling up 
the grave. Recognising this as a sign of the wrath 
of Heaven for the blasphemous perjury that had been 
committed, ''they gave up the attempt, and covered 
over the tomb with a sort of roof and left it. 

But Alraschid, with all his piety, did not care for a 
miracle when it was in opposition to his own passions, 
and in spite of the amnesty, and the divine testimony 
to Yahya's innocence, the latter was put to a cruel 
death in prison. 

In the same year, threatening symptoms of a 
revolution appeared in Egypt, and Haroun recalled 
the governor, Musa 'bn Isa, a cousin of the Caliph's 
father, whom he had been led to suspect was har- 
bouring sinister designs against him, and had insti- 
gated the movement. 

When Haroun heard this, he declared that he 
would depose him, and replace him by the meanest 
of those about his door. He accordingly ordered 
Jaafer to bring one Omar ibn Mehran, who was 
surnamed Abu Hafs, to him, a man of extremely 
ugly countenance, with a cast in his eye, who 
used to dress in a very mean fashion, and to ride 



62 Harotui Alraschid, 

about with his servant on the same horse behind 
him. When the Caliph asked this forbidding- 
looking personage if he was ready to go to Egypt 
as governor, he replied churlishly, " I am ready to 
govern the place, on condition that as soon as I have 
set the country in order I shall come back whenever 
I please." Haroun consented to this arrangement, 
and Omar set out. Arrived at Cairo, he made 
straight for Musa's house, and sat down in the last 
row of those who were attending the levSe. When all 
the rest had departed, Musa noticed him, and asked 
him what he wanted. Omar handed him the Caliph's 
letter, and the governor, on reading it, said, "And 
has Abu Hafs arrived, God bless him V " I am 
Abu Hafs," replied the bearer of the note. Musa 
said, " May God curse Pharoah for saying, ^ Is not 
the Kingdom of Egypt mine V {Koran, c. v.) 

However, he resigned the governorship to the new- 
comer without any further hesitation, and Omar 
entered then and there upon his duties. His first 
instructions to his secretary were not to accept any 
presents on his behalf, except what could be put into 
his purse ; so when the grandees and officials brought 
the customary presents, he refused all such gifts as 
horses, slave girls, and the like, and only accepted 
ready money and valuable clothes. These he care- 
fully put by, labelling each with the name of the 
giver. 



Disturbance in Damascus, 6i 

Hitherto the people of Egypt had always been 
backward with their taxes, and this Omar determined 
to put a stop to. So he began by making an example 
of a certain man, and sued him for his taxes ; the 
debtor tried to put him off, and declared that he 
would only pay it at Bagdad itself. Omar took him 
at his word, and, although he remonstrated and 
offered to find the money, sent him to the capital. 
After that, no one tried to put him off; and the first 
and second instalments were regularly paid. When, 
however, it came to the third instalment, the people 
were unable to pay, and were obliged to ask for a 
delay, complaining that they found themselves short 
of money. Thereupon, Omar produced the presents 
which had been made him, paid them into the 
treasury, credited the givers with the amounts, and 
then sued them for the balance. They saw that 
so unusually honest a governor was not to be trifled 
with, and contrived to find the money ; so that, for 
the first time within the memory of man, the Egyptian 
revenue was punctually paid. Having accomplished 
this, Omar resigned his post, and went back to 
Bagdad. 

In the year 176 A.H. the old quarrel broke out in 
Damascus between the Modhari and Yemeni clans. 
Amir ibn Amarah, surnamed Abu Heidham, a 
celebrated Arab knight, was at the head of the 
Modharis, and the beginning of the quarrel was that 



64 Haroun Alraschid. 

one of Alraschid's officers in Sejistan had killed one 
of Abu Heidham's brothers. Abu Heidham, hearing 
the news, gathered a number of people to his standard, 
and revolted. 

Like most distinguished Arabs, he was a poet, and 
some verses which he composed as an elegy on his 
brother, and which he used to recite in public, served 
to inflame the minds of the populace. 

Alraschid having induced another brother of Abu 
Heidham to betray him, seized the rebel chief and 
took him prisoner. As his insurrection, however, was 
not an important one, and arose from no antagonism 
to the Caliph's authority itself, he set him free. 

About the same time (177 A.H.), El Attaf ibn Sufeyan 
el Azadi, one of the most powerful chiefs of Mosul, 
also revolted against Alraschid's lieutenant there, 
Mohammed ibn Abbas El Hashimi, and, placing 
himself at the head of 4000 men, collected the taxes, 
and held possession of the city for two years, 
when Alraschid himself attacked it, and destroyed 
the walls. 

Attaf escaped to Armenia. With a view to quieting 
the disaffected provinces. El Fadhl ibn Yahya el 
Barmeki was appointed by the Caliph governor of 
Khorassan in this year, in addition to the provinces 
of Rai and Seistan, which he already held. 

In the year 794, the Haufiyeh in Egypt revolted 
against their governor, Ishak ibn Suleiman ; but 



Revolt of El IValid es Sheibani. 65 

Alraschid sent Herthemat ibn Ayan, who was then 
Viceroy of Palestine, against them, who reduced them 
to submission. 

The Haufiyeh were connected with the Cais and 
Cudha'ah tribes, who had taken a conspicuous part 
in the disturbances at Damascus. 

A more important revolt was that of El VValid ibn 
Tarif es Sheibani in Mesopotamia. Having beaten 
two detachments of the Caliph's forces, Alraschid 
despatched Yezid ibn Mazyed, also a member of the 
Sheibani clan, to reduce him to submission ; but 
Yezid, probably disliking to attack his clansman, 
continued to shilly-shally and temporise with him. 

The Barmek family were on bad terms with Yezid, 
and told Alraschid that he was only trifling with El 
Walid through friendly feeling, because they both 
belonged to the same stock. 

The Caliph, influenced by their insinuations, wrote 
to Yezid an angry letter, in which he said, *' If I had 
sent one of the common servants, he would have 
accomplished more than you have done ; but it is 
evident that you are not to be depended on, and 
have a bigoted attachment to your own tribe, and 
I swear by God that if you do not make haste to 
punish him, I will send some one to bring me back 
your head." 

Yezid, on this, thought it necessary to make a 
decisive move, and at length encountered El Walid. 

E 



66 Haroun Alraschid. 

He arrived at the place of conflict in bad condition, 
being so thirsty after his march that he was obliged 
to put his ring into his mouth and suck it. Addressing 
his troops, he said, " May my mother and father be a 
ransom for you. These are only undisciplined rebels 
who are going to attack you ; but do you stand firm, 
and when their attack is over, charge them, for if once 
they are routed they will never rally." The event 
turned out as he had predicted. Yezid and his troops 
withstood the charge of the enemy, then rushed upon 
them and broke their ranks. 

Yezid's son, Asad, was present in the engagement 
with his father. There is said to have been such a 
striking likeness between father and son, that the 
only thing by which they could be distinguished one 
from the other was that Yezid had a scar on his face 
from a sword-cut right across his forehead. Asad 
wished to get a similar scar, and when, during the 
fight, he saw a blow about to descend, he put his 
head above his buckler, and received the blow in the 
same place as his father had been wounded. 

Yezid pursued El Walid, captured him, and be- 
headed him. 

When El Walid was slain, his sister Laila herself 
joined the troops, clad in armour, and led them on 
to the charge. Yezid, however, recognised her, and, 
riding up to her, made a thrust at the crupper of her 
horse with his lance, and cried, " Get thee home ; 



Affairs m Af7nca, 67 

thou'rt disgracing the clan !" whereupon she became 
ashamed of her effrontery, and retired. She was a 
poetess of no mean capacity, and wrote an elegy on 
her brother, El Walid, which is still preserved. 

Africa had belonged to the Caliphate in little more 
than name, but, under the energetic governorship of 
Yezid ibn Hatim el Muhallebi, had enjoyed a certain 
amount of quiet, and acknowledged the authority of 
Haroun Alraschid. 

In ySG Hatim died, leaving his son Daud provision- 
ally governor in his stead. An insurrection of the 
Ibadhiyeh, a sect of the Kharegites, broke out about 
this time, and Daud despatched a body of troops 
against them ; but the insurgents were victorious, and 
routed the army. Daud, however, sent some rein- 
forcements, and the Ibadhiyeh were dispersed with 
much slaughter. 

Daud remained in office for nine months, when 
Alraschid appointed his uncle, Rauh ibn Hatim, 
governor instead. 

The province continued quiet under his adminis- 
tration, chiefly for the reason, as the historian naively 
remarks, that his brother Yezid had killed so many 
of the rebels. He, too, died at Cairowan, and was 
buried by the side of his brother in the month of 
Ramazan. 

Alraschid now appointed El Fadhl, son of the last- 
mentioned viceroy, ruler over the African provinces 



6S Haroiin Alraschid. 

in place of Habib ibn Nasr el Mohallebi, whom he 
had sent there, and now recalled. 

El Fadhl designated his nephew, El Mogheirah, his 
lieutenant in Tunis ; but this officer rendered himself 
very unpopular with the army as well as with the 
Tunisian chiefs, who demanded his removal. To this 
his cousin, the Governor-General, refused to listen, 
whereupon the Caids (or chieftains) assembled to- 
gether, appointed one Ibn el Jarud their leader, and 
expelled El Mogheirah. At the same time they wrote 
to El Fadhl, declaring that they did not wish to throw 
off their allegiance to the Government, but had only 
expelled the lieutenant-governor because of his 
oppression and bad behaviour, and demanded that 
El Fadhl should send some one else to assume the 
office. 

El Fadhl accordingly sent his cousin Abdallah, a 
son of Yezid ibn Hatim, and when he was about a 
day's journey from Tunis, Ibn el Jarud despatched 
some troops to find out whom he had with him, but 
strictly enjoined them to do nothing without his 
orders. 

The leaders of the expedition, however, imagining 
that El Fadhl had sinister intentions in sending his 
cousin, and that he would revenge himself on them 
for expelling his nephew, set upon the party, killed 
the newly-appointed lieutenant-governor, and brought 
back his generals prisoners. 



Affairs ui Africa. 69 



Ibn el Jarud and his party were now fairly com- 
mitted to the revolt, and obliged to use all their 
efforts to procure the removal of El Fadhl. 

Ibn el Farsi, who had been original instigator of 
the movement, assumed the command, and adopted 
a most ingenious though treacherous plan for assuring 
the co-operation of his fellow-chiefs. He wrote a 
separate letter to each of the Caids and Prefects of 
cities in Africa, saying, " The misconduct of El Fadhl 
in the dominions of the Prince of the Faithful is such 
that we are compelled to revolt from his authority. 
And since we know of no one more fitted to act as 
Vicegerent of the Prince of the Faithful than yourself, 
and no one of more influence over the army, we have 
resolved, if victorious, to make you our leader, and 
we have written to the Prince of the Faithful to 
appoint you governor of the province. Should we, 
however, prove unsuccessful, no one need know that we 
ever wished to place you in such a position. Adieu." 

This turned all the officers against El Fadhl, and 
brought large numbers to the insurgents' standard, 
including many of the soldiery. On the very first 
engagement El Fadhl was defeated, and withdrew to 
Cairowan, where he made a stand for a day ; but in 
the next Ibn el Jarud succeeded in forcing the gates, 
drove them out, and pursued them to Cabus, where 
El Fadhl was killed. 

The death of their leader so exasperated the army 



70 Haroun Alraschid. 

that they raUied, and, making El Ala ibn Said, 
governor of the city of Zab, their general, repelled two 
severe attacks of Ibn el Jarud, but were unable to hold 
Cairowan against him. 

Haroun Alraschid, hearing of Ibn el Jarud's revolt, 
ordered Herthemat ibn Ayan to proceed to the 
country and repress the movement ; but he sent 
on Yahya 'bn Musa beforehand to try and induce 
the rebel chief to come to terms. Yahya arrived 
just as Ibn el Jarud had fortified himself in Cairowan, 
and entered into negotiations with him, showing him 
the Caliph's letter. Ibn el Jarud endeavoured to 
temporise and to deceive the envoy, saying that if he 
surrendered Cairowan, the native Africans who were 
with El Ala would seize the place, and it would be 
lost to the Imperial Government. But he promised 
that, if he conquered El Ala in the sortie which he 
intended to make, he would wait for the arrival of 
Herthemah ; while, if he were conquered himself, 
Yahya could do as he pleased. Yahya saw plainly 
what his intentions were, and that if he did conquer El 
Ala, he could defy Herthemah. So he took Ibn el Farsi 
aside, reproached him with his breach of allegiance, 
and induced him, by the hope of his own complicity 
being overlooked, to aid in reducing Ibn el Jarud. 
Ibn el Farsi thereupon again brought his perfidious 
policy into play, and, by calumniating Ibn el Jarud, 
gained over a large number of the soldiery, and gave 



Affairs in Africa. 71 

him battle. Ibn el Jarud determined on revenging 
himself, and arranged with one of his friends, named 
Talib, that he would distract Ibn el Farsi's attention 
by reproaching him with his treachery, and that 
Talib should then seize the opportunity and kill him. 
This plan was carried out, the traitor was killed, 
and his army routed. Yahya then went off to join 
Herthemah at Tripoli, and as soon as it became 
known that the Imperial Commissioner was so near, 
people flocked in from all sides to the standard of El 
Ala. Ibn el Jarud, seeing his disadvantage, wrote 
to Yahya, offering to surrender Cairowan to him, 
and Yahya accordingly set off for that place, which 
Ibn Jarud vacated. El Ala and Yahya hurried on to 
the town, each hoping to reach it before the other, 
and get all the glory for himself. El Ala was the 
first to arrive, and having taken possession of the 
place, set off and joined Herthemah. But Ibn el Jarud 
had already surrendered himself to the last-named 
general, who sent him to Bagdad with a letter to the 
Caliph, informing him that El Ala had been the cause 
of his revolt. Alraschid wrote and ordered El Ala 
to be sent to him, and when he arrived, he gave him 
presents and khilas or dresses of honour, equivalent 
to modern " decorations." Ibn el Jarud was kept a 
prisoner at Bagdad. Herthemah took possession of 
Cairowan in the month of Rabi' i, and the province- 
was once again quieted for a time. 



72 Haroim Alraschid. 

Herthemah, however, found the people of Africa so 
turbulent, and insurrections so frequent, that he ulti- 
mately resigned the governorship of the province in 
Ramadhan, i8i A.H. 

Mohammed ibn Mukatil, a foster-brother of the 
Caliph, was now made Viceroy of Africa in place 
of Herthemat ibn Ayan. He rendered himself 
obnoxious to the soldiery, who joined with the 
natives and revolted against his authority, making 
Makhled ibn Murreh their leader. The latter was 
unsuccessful, and was forced to take refuge in a 
mosque, where he was taken and slain. 

The Tunisians also rebelled against the Viceroy, 
and attacked Cairowan in 799 A.D., under the leader- 
ship of Temmam ibn Temim. Having conquered the 
town, he allowed Mohammed to depart unhurt, on 
condition that he left Africa for good. 

Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab, Prefect of the province of 
Zab, however, drove out Temmam and recalled 
Mohammed. But the reinstatement of the latter 
was only a trick of Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab, who, by 
representing to the Caliph the extreme unpopularity 
of the governor, and offering to pay into the imperial 
treasury an annual sum of 40,000 dinars, instead of 
drawing out of it 100,000 yearly as the other 
governors had done, induced Haroun to appoint 
him to the office instead. The Caliph, who saw 
that he could not retain Africa without immense 



The Edrisi Dynasty. 73 

sacrifices- if Ibrahim went over to his enemies, not 
only accepted this proposal, but allowed the office to 
become hereditary in the Aghlabite family. 
' Such Mohammedanism as the Berber inhabitants of 
West Africa had was of a very heterodox character ; 
they still clung to their ancient forms of belief, and, 
like the Persians, welcomed any form of Islam which 
enabled them to escape from the rigid bonds of 
Semitic orthodoxy. For the same reason as the 
Persians, therefore, they opened their arms to the 
descendants of Ali, who represented the more 
romantic and liberal side of their religion. 

Already, in the year y^G, under the Caliph El 
Hadi, Edris, a lineal descendant of Hasan, the son 
of Ali, having taken part in an unsuccessful insurrec- 
tion at Mecca, fled to Africa, where, two years after, 
he proclaimed himself Imam, and was recognised as 
sovereign by a large number of the Berber tribes. In 
a short space of time he had gained possession of 
the whole of the further Maghreb, and fixed upon 
Telemsan as his capital city. Haroun Alraschid, hear- 
ing of this, consulted Yahya the Barmecide, who des- 
patched an Arab named Suleiman to assassinate the 
young prince. Suleiman, by professing great devotion 
to the Alide cause, gained Edris' confidence, and took 
the opportunity of presenting him with a phial of 
volatile poison, which caused his death, A.D. 791-792. 
The murderer escaped, but not without some severe 



74 Haroun Ab^aschid. 



wounds on the head and the loss of one hand, inflicted 
by Raschid, the friend and guardian of Edris. The 
crime was, however, useless,, as one of Edris' wives 
brought forth a son shortly after, who was recognised 
as his father's successor. The town of Fez, which 
was founded by one of the dynasty in 807, became 
their capital. 

Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab at first conceived the idea 
of absorbing this kingdom into his own, the young 
Edris II. being then in his minority ; but abstained 
from hostilities, probably because he thought the 
presence of an Alide monarchy in such close 
neighbourhood to the Ommiade dynasty, which had 
already established itself in Spain, would prove 
useful to him in case of a rupture with the Caliph 
of Bagdad. 

But in addition to troubles in the provinces of his 
own empire, and wars with Moslem foes, the Caliph 
had the standing feud to carry on with the Byzantine 
empire, and also a perpetual conflict to wage with the 
Turkoman barbarians of Khozar. 

Against neither the one nor the other of these was 
he able to hurl the whole irresistible force of the 
Mussulman army, the services of large bodies of his 
troops being always required in some part of his 
dominion to suppress an insurrection. He made, 
however, yearly raids into the Greek territory, either 
in person or by his lieutenants, gaining each time a 



operations against the Greeks. 75 

large booty in property and slaves. In the year 791 
A.D., during a very hard winter, they appear to have 
suffered a severe reverse ; but in some sea-fights at 
Crete, according to the Arab authorities, and at 
Cyprus, according to the Byzantine writers, the 
Moslems were the victors. The Admiral Theophilus 
was taken prisoner and brought before Haroun 
Alraschid, who offered him the usual choice between 
embracing Mohammedanism or death. On his 
refusal, he was hewn in pieces. 

In the year 797-798, JIaroun marched on and 
seized the town of Safsaf, whilst Abd el Melik ibn 
Salih pressed on to Ancyra. The events which 
followed the blinding of Constantine by his unnatural 
mother paralysed the Greeks, and after an inter- 
change of captives, the first that had taken place 
under the Abbasides, the Arabs returned home, 
and a four years' truce was concluded, the Empress 
Irene having agreed to the payment of a heavy 
tribute. 

Haroun himself was so much occupied by the 
massacres of his co-religionists in Armenia by the 
Khozars, that he was unable to take advantage of the 
defenceless position of the Byzantines. 

In 802, on Nicephorus obtaining possession of the 
throne, the war broke out anew. The new emperor 
wrote a letter to Haroun, couched in the following 
terms : — 



*j6 Haroun Alraschid. 

" From Nicephorus, King of the Greeks, to Haroun, 
.King of the Arabs. 

" The empress who preceded me considered you as 
a Rook and herself as a Pawn. She paid you tribute 
when you ought to have paid her double the amount. 
This was out of a woman's weakness and stupidity. 
So when you have read this letter of mine, send back 
the tribute you have received of her, and ransom 
yourself with whatever you may be called upon to 
pay, otherwise the sword is between you and me." 

When Haroun read this, he was in such a fearful 
rage that no one dared look at him, much less to 
speak to him, and all the courtiers retired from his 
presence. Then he called for a pen and ink, and 
wrote on the back of Nicephorus' letter — " In the 
name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. 
From Haroun, Commander of the Faithful, to Nice- 
phorus, the dog of the Greeks. I have read your 
letter, you son of a she-infidel, and you shall see the 
answer before you hear it." 

" He set forth that very day, camped at Heraclea, 
and conquered, plundered, burnt, and ruined," to 
quote an old Arab historian, until Nicephorus, who 
was occupied with the rebel, Bardanes, was com- 
pelled to sue for peace. This the Caliph consented 
to grant at last, on condition that Nicephorus paid 
him a tribute every half-year. 

But when Haroun had returned and settled at 



Defeat of Nicephorus. 77 

Rakkeh, Nicephorus, having conquered Bardanes, 
and thinking that as the cold was then very severe 
the Cah"ph could not return to invade his territory, 
broke the treaty, 

When this news reached Rakkeh, no one dared 
to tell it to Haroun, fearing lest they might be 
despatched on active service in the inclement weather. 

At length a certain poet contrived to hint to the 
Caliph how matters stood : 

" Nicephorus has broken the terms which thou didst give 

him, 
But the wheel of destruction will revolve upon him ; 
Give glad tidings to the Prince of Believers, for, verily, it 

is a great victory that God will give thee, 
A victory surpassing all the victories of this our day. 
In the triumph thy triumphant banners will gain." 

When Alraschid heard this, he cried out, " Ah ! 
and has Nicephorus done this ?" and was much 
incensed to find that his ministers had deceived him. 
He at once set out for the Grecian frontier, and 
although the weather was most inclement, and the 
hardships undergone by the Moslems were terrible, 
Nicephorus was defeated, with a loss of 40,000 men. 
A fresh exchange of captives and a truce followed ; 
but the Greeks, taking advantage of the insurrection 
of A'- "-n Isa in Khorassan, of which we shall speak 
^.^., again commenced hostilities. 

Haroun at once conducted a host of 135,000 men, 



yS Harottn Alraschid. 

and took Heraclea, while his generals conquered and 
dismantled other fortresses, and his fleet captured 
17,000 prisoners at Cyprus, and sent them on to 
Syria. 

Nicephorus, now quite disheartened, was obliged 
to make peace on most humiliating terms, paying 
a poll-tax for himself and family, and promising 
never to rebuild Heraclea. Of course^ as soon as 
Haroun returned, home, all' these promises were 
forg otten, and in 807 the Greeks defeated Yezid ibn 
Makhled, who had been sent against them with 
10,000 men, in the neighbourhood of Tarsus. Her- 
themat ibn Ayan, who with 30,000 men had been 
posted to guard the frontier and watch the building 
of the fortifications at Tarsus, was equally unfortu- 
nate, and, as he was shortly after obliged to leave for 
Khorassan to quell the disturbances there, the Byzan- 
tines were able for a while to defy the Moslem power. 

Haroun vented his spleen on the Christians in his 
dominions, by again bringing into force the obselete 
regulations and disabilities imposed upon them by 
tho Caliph Omar at the taking of Jerusalem by the 
Moslems. These were as follows :— 

The Christians shall enjoy security both of person and 
property ; the safety of their churches shall be, moreover, 
guaranteed, and no interference is to be permitted, on 
the part of the Mohammedans, with any of their religious 
exercises, houses, or institutions ; provided only that such 



Christian Disubilities. yg 

churches, or rehgious institutions, shall be open night and 
day to the inspection of the Moslem authorities. All 
strangers and others are to be permitted to leave the town 
if they think fit; but anyone electing to remain shall be 
subject to the herein-mentioned stipulations. No payment 
shall be exacted from anyone until after the gathering in of 
his harvest. Mohammedans are to be treated everywhere 
with the greatest respect; the Christians must extend to them 
the rights of hospitality, rise to receive them, and accord them 
the first place of honour in their assemblies. The Christians 
are to build no new churches, convents, or other religious 
edifices, either within or without the city, or in any oth^r 
part of the Moslem territory; they shall not teach their 
children the Koran ; but, on the other hand, no one shall 
be prevented from embracing the Mohammedan religion. 
No public exhibition of any kind of the Christian religion 
is to be permitted. They shall not in any way imitate 
the Moslems, either in dress or behaviour, nor make use of 
their language in writing or engraving, nor adopt Moslem 
names or appellations. They shall not carry arms, nor 
ride astride their animals, nor wear or publicly exhibit the 
sign of the cross. They shall not make use of bells, nor 
strike the ndkiis (wooden gongs), except with a suppressed 
sound ; nor shall they place their lamps in public places, 
nor raise their voices in lamentation for the dead. They 
shall shave the front part of the head and gird up their dress; 
and, lastly, they shall never intrude into any Moslem's 
house on any pretext whatever. To these conditions 
Omar added the following clause, to be accepted by the 
Christians : — That no Christian should strike a Moslem, 
and that, if they failed to comply with any single one of the 
previous stipulations, they should confess that their lives 



8o Haroun Ah'aschid. 

were justly forfeit, and that they were deserving of the 
punishment inflicted upon rebeUious subjects." 

We have hitherto spoken only of the imperial 
events of Haroun's reign, and the figure of the 
Caliph appears throughout the history as a central 
one, no doubt, but still a very impalpable one. The 
course of events was not, however, directed by Haroun 
himself, but by the Vizier, Yahya ibn Barmek, and 
his sons; and the personal history of the Caliph is so 
intimately connected with this family, that it is 
impossible to judge of him as an individual apart 
from his relations with them. 

Readers of the "Arabian Nights " are familiar with 
the name of Jaafer the Barmecide, the constant 
companion of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid in his 
nightly incognito walks through the city of Bagdad ; 
and the expression, " a Barmecide feast," from a 
comic story in the same collection of tales, has 
passed into a proverb in our language. The story 
of the Barmecides, and especially of the fate of 
Jaafer, is perhaps one of the most pathetic in the 
annals of Oriental history, and that story we must 
now proceed to tell. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FALL OF THE BARMECIDES. 

HAROUN'S treatment of the family of Yahya, his 
old protector and guardian, and particularly the 
murder of his friend and companion, Jaafer, is a dark 
spot in his career. 

Various causes are assigned for the Caliph's sudden 

change of disposition towards the Barmecides, and 

va |ious influences were certainly at work against 

th(im. In the first place, the fact that a family of 

rely Persian origin monopolised the important 

offices of the State, and virtually held the reins of 

government in their own hands, was intolerable to 

Arab party. These, headed by El Fadhl ibn 

bia, whose father had been Vizier to El Hadi, 

bu^i: had been removed by Haroun to make way 

f ^ Yahya, lost no opportunity of plotting and of 

pcjsoning the Caliph's mind against them. On one 

ocpasion a copy of anonymous verses was presented 

to Alraschid, in which the writer said — 

Say to God's trusty servant on earth, to him who 

F 



the 
Ra 



82 Haroun A Iras chid. 

has the power to loose and bind, Lo ! the sons o^^ 
Yahya are kings like thee ; there is no longer any 
difference between you ; thy behests are altered by 
them, but theirs are implicitly fulfilled. Jaafer haj 
built a palace, in the like of which no Persian o^ 
Indian ever dwelt The floor thereof is set witl' 
pearls and rubies, and the ceiling thereof is of ambf ' 
and aloes wood ; we even fear lest he may inherit th> 
kingdom v/hen thou art hidden in the grave. Non'>^ 
but an arrogant slave dare so vie with his lord." 

The laxity of the Barmecides in religious obse^^- 
vances, their obvious leanings towards the Shi^h 
heresies, and the free-thinking opinions open'' 
expressed at the discussions which took place at the^ 
palaces, were also eagerly seized upon by the'-" 
enemies, and used for the purpose of calumniatihg 
them with the orthodox Haroun. Presently ^'^ 
numerously-signed petition was presented to him I-y 
a certain divine, couched in the following terms : — 

" Prince of Believers ! what answer wilt thou gr' 
on the Resurrection Day, and how wilt thou just' 7 
thyself before Almighty God, for having given .^'^ 
Yahya ibn Khalid, his sons and relations, si^-^'^ 
unlimited control over the Mussulmans, aj 
entrusted to them the government of the State' 
these godless infidels who secretly hold the doctriries 
of the Atheists.?" 

Haroun showed the petition (perhaps as a caution : 



Amour of Jaafer and Abbas ah. 83 

to Yahya, and Mohammed, the writer, was thrown into 
prison ; but the words undoubtedly made an impres- 
sion on the Caliph's mind. 

Still, there is every reason to believe that the 
charge of infidelity, as well as that of disloyalty and 
boundless ambition, would have been disregarded, 
had it not been for a private scandal, which Haroun 
thought to hush up by dealing summarily with all 
the actors in it. The knowledge of it might have 
been confined at least to the immediate circle of the 
court, but his brutal mode of vindicating the honour 
of his blood made it public at the time, and a subject 
for the comment of all future historians. This was 
the romantic adventure of Jaafer the Barmecide with 
the Caliph's sister, Abbasah. Haroun's attachment 
to Jaafer was of so extravagant a character that he 
could never bear him to be absent from his side, an ■ ae 
even went to the absurd length of having a cloak r ade 
with two collars, so that he and Jaafer could wea ' it: 
at one and the same time. His love for his sister 
Abbasah was equally unreasonable, and in order to 
enjoy in unconstrained freedom the society of both 
lis favourites, without breaking through the cus- 
tomary rules of etiquette and so-called morality, he 
conceived the idea of uniting the couple in marriage. 
But as he boasted that he was the only Caliph of 
pure Hashemi descent who had sat upon the throne, 
and could not brook for a moment the thought that 



84 Haroun Alraschid. 

the pure blood of his family should be tainted by 
admixture with a scion of the Persian race, he 
extorted a solemn promise from them both that they 
should never meet except in his presence, and that 
their union should be a merely nominal one. 

Jaafer thus obtained free access to the harem, and 
was constantly thrown into the society of the princess ; 
but, knowing the danger of offending the Caliph, he 
scrupulously avoided taking notice of her. Not so 
the lady, who was determined that she would not 
be condemned to a vestal life ; besides, the handsome 
and accomplished young Persian made a profound 
impression upon her. At length, by bribes and 
threats, she prevailed upon Jaafer's mother to bring 
them together, and the old lady contrived to intro- 
duce her to Jaafer as a certain slave girl procured by 
her for him, with the description of whose beauty 
and accomplishments she had already inflamed his 
passions. When the morning broke, and Jaafer, 
recovering from the effects of the wine with which 
his mother had plied him, recognised Abbasah, he 
was seized with consternation, and reproached her 
with having ruined them both. 

However, the only thing now was to keep the 
secret. But their intimacy continued, and Abbasah 
bore two sons. As soon as they passed out of 
infancy, the boys were sent to Mecca to be educated, 
and to be kept out of the way of the Caliph. 



Signs of the Caliph's Displeasure. 85 

Jaafer was a favourite with the ladies of the harem, 
for whom he was always ready to perform kindly 
offices ; but he, unfortunately, omitted to conciliate 
the proud Zobeideh, Haroun's cousin and favourite 
wife, and this at length led to the discovery of the 
secret. 

We shall see how all these circumstances com- 
bined to lead up to the final catastrophe which 
involved the house of Barmek in sudden and com- 
plete ruin. 

Some say that the first sign of the Caliph's change 
towards them was that he had ordered Jaafer to kill 
a certain man of the family of Ali 'bn Abu Talib — 
namely, Yahya 'bn Abdallah, the former rebel — and 
that Jaafer hesitated to execute the command, and let 
the poor fellow escape. His failure to obey orders 
in this matter was reported to Haroun, who sent 
for Jaafer, and asked what had become of the man 
" He is in prison," said Jaafer. " Will you swear it 
by my life V asked Alraschid. Jaafer saw that he 
had been betrayed, and confessed that he had allowed 
him to escape, because he believed him to be innocent. 
" You have done well," said the Caliph ; " I approve 
entirely of your action in this matter;" but as soon 
as Jaafer had retired, he added, " God kill me, if I do 
not kill you." Jaafer had built a house, and expended 
an immense sum of money upon it. " See," said 
Alraschid, " he spends this on one house ; what 



86 Haroun Alraschid. 

must his expenses be altogether !" Their ruin is also 
attributed to the popularity which their courtesy and 
generosity had acquired for them, and some say 
that Fadhl and Jaafer presumed too much on the 
familiarity which Haroun Alraschid allowed them. 

Ismail ibn Yahya, a relative of the Caliph, relates 
that the first spark of jealousy was kindled in 
Haroun's breast as he was out hunting, and Jaafer 
rode on with his cavalcade without waiting to escort 
him, while their path lay for miles through Jaafer's 
well-kept and fertile estates. Thereupon the following 
conversation occurred : — 

" Haroun. Look at these Barmecides ; we have 
enriched them and impoverished our own children ! 
We have let them go on too far. 

" Ismail (aside). By Allah ! here is something 
wrong ! (Aloud.) Why, your Majesty .? 

" Haromt. I have taken notice of the one and 

neglected the other. I do not know one of my sons 

vho has an estate comparable with those of the 

Barmecides, in the vicinity even of the capital, to say 

nothing of what they have elsewhere. 

" Ismail. O Prince of the Faithful ! the sons of 
Barmek are your slaves, your servants — their estates 
and all they have are yours. 

" Haroun (with a hard, malevolent look). Are the 
sons of Abbas, then, so poor that they have no wealth 
and no rank but what the sons of Barmek bestow t 



Harotins Jealotisy is arottsed. ^j 

''Ismail, Prince of the Faithful, look how rich 
many others of your servants are. 

'' Harouii. Ismail, I suspect you will repeat what I 
have said to them, and put them on their guard. 
Mind, I have mentioned it to no one else, and if 
it gets wind, I shall know who has betrayed my 
confidence. Adieu !" 

Ismail left him, feeling very perturbed and anxious, 
and wondered how he could scheme to avert the 
mischief The next morning he presented himself 
to the Caliph, as he was sitting in a palace over- 
looking the Tigris, to the east of the city (Bagdad), 
and immediately opposite was the palace of Jaafer, 
on the western bank. Noticing a large number of 
horses at the door, Haroun said, "With regard to 
what we were speaking of yesterday, just see how 
many troops, slaves, and cavalcades are at Jaafei'r> 
door, while no one stays at mine," Ismail said, " I 
conjure your Majesty, do not let such an idea enter 
your mind ! Jaafer is only your servant, and sla\ e 
and minister, and commander of your troops ; and ii 
the troops are not to be at his door, at whose, pray, 
should they be?" When, later on, Jaafer presented 
himself, Haroun received him with the greatest 
cordiality, and at the end of the interview gave him 
two of his most intelligent private attendants to wait 
upon him, ostensibly as a special mark of his favour, 
but really as spies upon his conduct to report every 



88 Haroun Alrasckid. 

day to the Caliph. Jaafer was delighted, and did 
not in the least suspect the doom that was hanging 
over him. Three days later, Ismail called on Jaafer, 
and, as one of the two slaves was present, was 
guarded in his remarks, knowing that all he said 
'would come to the Caliph's ears. Some time before 
this, the Caliph had appointed Jaafer Governor of 
Khorassan, and had given him an ensign and armies 
and sumptuous paraphernalia, so Ismail said — "Jaafer, 
you are going into a country extremely prosperous 
and wealthy. If I were you, I would make over one 
of my estates here to the son of the Prince of the 
Faithful." " Ismail," he replied, " your cousin the 
Caliph lives by my bounty, and it is only through us 
that his dynasty exists. Is it not enough that I have 
left him nothing to think about or trouble about, either 
for himself or his sons, or his suite, or his subjects, and 
that I have filled his treasury and heaped up wealth 
for him, that he must cast eyes upon what I have 
saved for my son and his posterity after me, that he 
should be affected with the envy and arrogance of 
the Beni Hashemi, and should be so covetous V 

" For Heaven's sake, sir," said Ismail, " do not 
think such a thing. The Caliph has not spoken a 
word to me upon the subject." 

" Then what is the meaning of telling me such 
nonsense .?" said he. " By Allah ! if he asks me for 
any of these things, it will be the worse for hirn." 



Haroun resents Yahyas iittrMsion. 89 

"After this," says Ismail, " I would neither go near 
him or Alraschid, for I was suspected by both parties, 
and said to myself, * One is the Caliph and the other 
the Prime Minister ; why should I interfere between 
them. The Barmecides, however, are, I fear, doomed.' " 

One of Jaafer's mother's servants told the narrator 
afterwards that the slave repeated every word of the 
above conversations to Alraschid. The latter, when 
he read the note containing the particulars, shut 
himself up for three days, and would see nobody, but 
passed the time brooding over his schemes of revenge. 

Other indications of the gathering storm were not 
wanting. 

Yahya's long services and devotion had placed 
him upon such terms with the Caliph that he used 
to enter Alraschid's apartments at any hour. But 
when the sovereign's mind had once conceived suspi- 
cions against the family, the familiarity which he har 
so long permitted was resented as an impertinen: : , 
and regarded as evidence of presumptuous design v 

One day, as Haroun was seated with Bakhtish^u, 
his physician, Yahya entered the apartment and 
saluted the Caliph. The latter scarcely returned 
the salutation, and, turning towards Bakhtishou, 
asked, " Does anyone come into your room without 
permission.?" "No," replied the doctor. "Then 
why do they come into ours without asking.?" 
said the Caliph. Yahya replied with sorrowful 



90 Haroun Alraschid. 

dignity, " I have not just commenced to do this, 

Prince of the Faithful ; but his Majesty himself 
gave me special orders to enter at any moment, even 
when he was undressed and in bed. I did not know 
that the Prince of the Faithful would dislike now 
what he liked hith*erto ; but now that I do know it, 

1 will keep whatever place you may assign to me." 

Haroun was somewhat ashamed of himself, and 
replied, " I did not mean to hurt your feelings." 

Scarcely had he left the room, however, when 
Haroun ordered the pages in attendance to discon- 
tinue rising on Yahya's entry, as they had been in 
the habit of doing. The first time that the minister 
entered the palace and noticed this want of respect, 
he perceived the cause, and changed colour. 

Afterwards the pages kept out of the way when he 
came in, or affected not to notice him. 

Bakhtishou also relates that he once paid the Caliph 
a visit at the Kasr el Khuld at Bagdad, and saw 
Haroun looking across the water at Yahya's palace, 
regarding attentively the crowds that came and went. 
" God bless Yahya," said he, " for reheving me of 
business and leaving me time for pleasure." But 
the next time he came and found the Caliph in 
the same position, Haroun appeared annoyed, and 
said, " Yahya seems to have taken all the business 
in hand without any reference to me. It is he who 
is the Caliph in reality, not I." 



Zobeideh in/lames Harouns mind. 91 

At length the blow fell. On the fourth day after 
his retirement, Haroun complained to Zobeideh, his 
chief wife, of what he felt, and showed her the 
slave's report. Now there was very ill feeling between 
Zobeideh and Jaafer, and had been for a long time, 
so that, when she once found out his secret, she 
followed him up to the death. "Advise me," said 
the Caliph, " what to do, for I fear lest the power 
may go out of my hands if they once take posses- 
sion of Khorassan." 

Said she, " You and the Barmecides are like a 
drunken man drowning in a great sea. If, however, 
you have recovered from your drunkenness, and 
escaped the drowning, I will tell you something much 
harder for you to bear than what you have heard. But 
if you are as infatuated with them as ever, I will let 
you alone." Being pressed for an explanation, she 
summoned one of her slaves named Arzu, who, she 
declared, knew all about it. Threatened with death 
if he remained silent, but promised pardon if he 
spoke the truth, Arzu related how Jaafer had really 
married his (Haroun's) sister, Abbasah, who had 
borne him children, although the Caliph had only 
allowed a formal ceremony of marriage to be per- 
formed between the two. 

" You see," continued the vindictive woman, " what 
comes of allowing him to associate with the daughter 
of one of God's vicegerents, a woman in every way 



92 Haroun Alraschid. 

better than he. This comes of bringing fire and 
faggots together." 

This intelligence was a severe blow to Haroun, 
who possessed, as we have already remarked, all the 
arrogance of the Hashemi family, and prided himself 
on his pure Imperial descent. Unmindful of his 
word, therefore, he ordered Arzu to be beheaded, and, 
going out from Zobeideh's presence, called for his 
chief executioner, Mesrur, and said, in a hard-hearted, 
pitiless tone, " Mesrur, to-night, when it is dark, bring 
me ten masons and two servants." 

The horrible story which follows shows the character 
of the good Haroun in a somewhat unexpected light. 

Mesrur obeyed the order, and brought at the 
appointed time the unlucky workmen after dark, 
when Alraschid rose up and preceded them to the 
private apartments of his sister, where he found her, 
and discovered the condition she was in. Without 
speaking one word to her, he ordered the servants to 
kill her, shut her up in a large box, and bury her, 
just as she was, under the floor of her own room. 
When she was dead, and the body placed in the 
chest, he locked it, took the key, and made the 
workmen dig down under the floor till they came 
to the water. Then he said, " That will do. Let the 
box down, and put the earth over it." They did so, 
smoothed the soil, and left the floor as it was before, 
the Caliph sitting on a chair all the time and looking 



The Caliplis Revenge. 93 

on. When they had finished, he turned them all out, 
locked up the door, and came away, taking the key 
with him. Then he turned to Mesrur and said, 
" Take these people and give them their hire." 
Mesrur, knowing what was meant, put them all into 
sacks, sewed them up with heavy weights inside, 
and threw them into the Tigris. The Caliph then 
gave him the key of the house, and told him to keep 
it until he asked for it, and to go and set up a 
Turkish tent in the middle of the palace : this he 
did, and the Caliph entered it before dawn, no one 
knowing what his intentions were. It was on a 
Thursday morning, and he sat there holding his 
Council. Now Thursday was Jaafer's cavalcade 
day. Presently he said, " Mesrur, do not go far 
away from me." Then the people came in and 
saluted him and sat* in their respective places, 
and Jaafer came too, and Haroun received hin: 
with the greatest cordiality, and welcomed him 
and smiled upon him, and laughed and joked with 
him, and he sat next the Caliph. Jaafer then brought 
out the letters he had received from various quarters, 
and the Caliph listened to them, and decided upon 
all the petitions and claims, &c., which they con- 
tained. Then Jaafer asked to be allowed to leave 
for Khorassan that day, and the Caliph called for 
the astrologer, who was sitting near, and asked him 
what o'clock it was. " Half- past nine o'clock," 



94 Harovtn Alraschid. 

answered the astrologer, and took the altitude c" 
the sun for him ; and Alraschid reckoned it up 
himself, and looked in his "Nautical Almanack" 
and said, *' To-day, my brother, is an unlucky one 
for you, and this is an unlucky hour, and I fancy 
something serious is going to happen in it. How- 
ever, stay over the Friday prayers, and go when 
the stars are more propitious ; then pass the night 
in Nahrawan, start early the next morning, and 
get on the road during the day — that is better 
than going now." Jaafer would not agree to what 
the Caliph said, until he had taken the astrolabe in 
his own hands from the astrologer, and had taken 
the altitude and reckoned it up for himself. Then 
he said, " By Allah, you speak the truth, O Prince 
of the Faithful ! I never saw a star burning more 
fiercely, or a narrower course in the zodiac than 
to-day." Then he went home, people of all ranks 
making much of him as he went. At last he reached 
his palace, surrounded by troops, transacted his 
business, and sent the crowds away. But he had 
hardly retired to his apartments when Alraschid sent 
Mesrur, saying, " Go to him at once and bring him 
here, and say to him, * A letter has just come from 
Khorassan.' When he comes through the first door, 
post the soldiers there ; at the second, post the slaves. 
Do not let any of his people come in with him, but 
bring him in alone, and turn him aside to the Turkish 



Jaafers Execution ordered. 95 

tent I bade you set up yesterday, and when he is 
inside, behead him, and bring his head to me, and do 
•not acquaint any one of God's creatures with what I 
have ordered, and do not trouble me again about it. 
If you disobey my instructions, I will have your head 
cut off, and brought to me with his. Enough ! 
Begone! Hasten, before he gets word of it from 
anyone else." Mesrur went off and asked for an 
interview with Jaafer, who had just taken off his 
clothes and laid himself down to rest. On entering, he 
said, " Sir, the Prince of the Faithful has sent me to 
summon you — he was very pressing and imperious, 
and I dare not but obey him." " But, Mesrur," said 
Jaafer, " I have only just come from his presence. 
What is the matter.?" "Letters from Khorassan 
have just arrived, and you must read them," was the 
reply. At this Jaafer felt more comfortable, and 
dressed himself and put on his sword, and went with 
him. But when he got through the first gate and 
saw the soldiers, and then through the second and 
saw the slaves, and then through the third, he 
turned, and finding none of his own attendants, and 
seeing that he was alone in the court, he blamed 
himself for coming out as he did, but it was too 
late to retrace his steps. Then Mesrur led him 
to the tent, and made him go inside and sit down 
as usual ; but seeing no one there, he perceived that 
some mischief was brewing, and said, "Mesrur, my 



g6 Harou7i Alraschid. 

brother, what is the matter V '' I am your brother," 
answered Mesrur, " and in your house, and you 
ask me what 's the matter. You know well enough 
— your time has come. The Prince of the Faithful 
has ordered me to cut off your head and take it to 
him at once." Jaafer wept a little, and then began 
to kiss Mesrur's hands and feet, and say, " Oh, my 
brother! oh, Mesrur! you know how good I have been 
to you more than to any of the pages or members of 
the household, and that I always did what you asked 
me day and night. You know what position I hold, 
and what influence I have with the Prince of the 
Faithful, and how he entrusts me with all his secrets. 
Perhaps some one may have traduced me to him. 
I have here two hundred thousand dinars (about 
;^ioo,ooo). I will produce them for you immediately, 
if you will only let me get away from here." " I 
cannot do it," said Mesrur. "Then," continued the 
wretched victim, " take me to him — set me before 
him. Perchance, when his glance falls upon me, he 
will have some pity, and pardon me." " I cannot do 
it," was the reply. " I dare not go back to him. I 
know there is no chance for your life, not the least." 
But Jaafer persisted. " Oh ! wait a little ; go b. .1 
to him and say, ' I have done what you ordered , 
then listen to what he says, and come back an, 
do as you like. But if you do that, and I am 
saved, I take God and the angels to witness that 



Death of yaafer. 97 

1 will give you half of what I possess, and make you 
commander-in-chief of the army. I will give you 
everything." And he kept on weeping and im- 
loring him, and clinging so to Hfe, that Mesriir 
aid, " Well, it may be managed." So he took off 
he sword and sword-belt, and set forty black 
laves to guard the tent, and went to the Caliph. 
The latter was sitting down, perspiring with rage, 
holding a cane in his hand, and digging it into the 
ground. When he saw Mesrur, he said, "May thy 
mother be bereaved of thee ! What hast thou done 
in the matter of Jaafer .?" "I have done what you 
ordered." "Where is his head.?" ''In the tent." 
" Fetch it me at once." So Mesrur went back, and 
found Jaafer on his knees praying. He did not give 
him time to finish his prayer, but drew his sword 
and cut off his head, and took it by the beard and 
threw it before the Prince of the Faithful, all dripping 
as it was with blood. The Caliph heaved a deep 
sigh, and wept terribly, and dug his stick in the earth 
after each word that he spoke, and gnashed his teeth 
on the walking-stick, and addressed the head, 
saying — "Oh, Jaafer, did I not put you on an equality ^ 

with myself.? Oh, Jaafer, hov/ have you requited // 
me } You have neither observed my rights nor kept 1/ 
your pact with me. You have forgotten my bounty ; 
you have not looked to the results of actions. You 
have not reflected on the vicissitudes of fortune. 

G 



98 Ha7^oun Alraschid. 

You have not counted on the revolutions of time and 
the changes of human circumstances. Oh, Jaafer, you 
have deceived me in my family ; disgraced me before 
all men. Oh, Jaafer, you have done evil to me and 
to yourself." 

Haroun then sent to Medina for the two sons 
of Jaafer (who had been born to the latter by the 
Caliph's sister, Abbasah), and had them brought 
in to the palace to him. When he saw them 
he admired them very much, for they were very 
handsome lads, and he made them talk, and found 
they had all the polish of natives of Medina, and all 
the fluency and eloquence which distinguished his 
own — the Hashemi — family. Then he asked the 
eldest, "What is your name, my darling V He said, 
" El Hassan." He then asked the youngest, " What 
is yours, my dear V " El Husein," replied the child. 
And the Caliph looked at them for a long time, 
and wept, and then said to them, " Your beauty and 
innocence touch me. May God show no mercy to 
him who wrongs you ;" and they had no idea what 
he intended to do with them. Then he said to 
Mesrur, " What have you done with the key of the 
room which I gave you to take care oil" " Here it 
is, Prince of the Faithful." "Give it me," said 
Haroun. Then he sent for some slaves and servants, 
and ordered them to dig a deep pit in the house of 
Jaafer, and he called Mesrur, and ordered him to kill 



Massacre of the Barmecides. 99 



the two children, and bury them with their mother in 
that pit. And he was weeping all the time — " So that 
I thought," says Mesrur, " that he would have had 
pity on them ; but he wiped his eyes, and bade those 
about him never mention the name of the Barmecides 
again." After Jaafer's death. El Fadhl was summoned 
the same night, and imprisoned in one of Alraschid's 
palaces. Yahya was placed under arrest in his own 
house ; all their property was confiscated, and more 
than a thousand of the Barmecide family were slain. 

El Amraniy, the historian, relates a curious incident 
illustrating the sudden reverse of the Barmek family. 
A certain individual said that he happened one day to 
go into the Treasury office, and casting his eyes upon 
one of the ledgers, he noticed the entry — " For a dress 
of honour and decorations for Jaafer, son of Yahya, 
400,000 gold dinars."^ A few days after, he returned, 
and saw on the same ledger the following item— 
"Naphtha and shavings for burning the body of 
Jaafer, son of Yahya, 10 kirats ;" a kirat being about 
the twenty-fourth part of a dinar. 

The catastrophe above narrated took place on 
Haroun's return from Mecca, in the year 803 ; and it 
is probable that his suspicions had been aroused 
before he undertook the journey. Indeed, some 
authors say that he visited the holy cities in order to 

■^ Nearly £200,000. 



100 Haroun A Iras chid. 

see the children himself, and judge from their like- 
ness to Jaafer or his sister whether the rumour were 
true or no. Certain it is that the order for the 
executions was given by him at Ambar, on his 
return from Hejaz. 

Jaafer's liberality to Abd el Melik ibn Salih, which 
we have already recorded, when he made so free with 
the public money and the Caliph's consent to his 
daughter's marriage, though perhaps thought little of 
at the time, would be likely to rankle in Haroun's 
mind, jealous as he always was of the influence of the 
family of Ali, and would give a keener edge to his 
wrath when once it was aroused against Jaafer, and 
would induce him to lend a readier ear to the 
calumnies against the latter. 

But that it was to revenge a fancied indignity, 
and to wipe out a supposed stain upon his scutcheon, 
and not for political reasons, that Haroun destroyed 
his best friends, is proved by the following anecdote, 
which is related by the Arab chroniclers. When 
asked by one of his sisters why he had treated the 
Barmecides in so shocking a manner, he replied, " If 
this shirt I wear knew the cause, I would tear it to 
pieces." 

Yahya's wife, who had been Haroun's foster- 
mother, waited upon him when she heard of her 
husband's arrest, and having, after much trouble, been 
admitted to his presence, showed him his first tooth 



Imprisonment of Yahya and El Fadhl. loi 

and a lock of his hair, which she had preserved as 
rehcs of his infancy, and besought him by these tokens 
of her affection to release her husband. The Caliph 
tried to buy them from her, but she in a rage threw 
them down at his feet, saying, " I will make thee a 
present of them !" and went out without having 
attained her object. 

Yahya, Jaafer's father, and El Fadhl his brother, 
were also, as we have said, thrown into prison, but 
not subjected to a very rigorous confinement, being 
allowed to retain their personal servants and women 
about them. They remained in prison in comparative 
comfort until the arrest of Abd el Melik ibn Salih, 
of which I shall speak later on, when the Caliph 
treated them all barbarously alike. 

When Yahya was told that Alraschid had killed 
Jaafer, he said, " So will God kill his son." " But," 
said the messenger, " he has ruined your house too !" 
" So will God ruin his house," replied the unhappy 
father. When Alraschid heard of this, he w^as much 
distressed; for, said he, " I never knew Yahya to 
say anything that did not turn out true." 

The great eminence to which his family had 
arrived, and the uniform good fortune which they for 
so long enjoyed, appear often to have made Yahya, 
who knew his master's fickle temper, tremble lest a 
reverse should come. The historians relate that one 
day, while performing the circuit of the Ka'abeh at 



102 Haroun Alraschid. 

Mecca (one of the ceremonies of the pilgrimage), he 
was heard to say — " Oh God, if it be Thy pleasure to 
strip me of the worldly prosperity Thou hast granted 
to me, to deprive me of my family and my wealth 
and children, deprive me of them, oh God, but oh, 
spare me Fadhl my son !" Then he walked away, 
but after a little he came back and said — " Oh Lord, 
how unworthy is it that one such as I am should 
make any reserve with Thee ! My God ! and 
Fadhl too!" 

The Moslem authors look upon this incident as 
prophetic, for Haroun overthrew the house of Barmek 
shortly afterwards. 

On another occasion he was heard to pray that 
God would visit his sins on him in this world, and 
not in the next, and the ruin of his family is regardet 
as an answer to his prayer. 

On one occasion Haroun Alraschid sent Mesrur t 
El Fadhl in his prison, with orders to force him to 
make a correct statement of his property, and deliv( 
up any that he might have concealed. In case 'i 
his refusal he was to receive two hundred lashe „ 
Mesrur delivered his message to the captive, an^i 
advised him " not to prefer his riches to his own 
safety." El Fadhl replied with dignity—" By Allah, 
I have made no false statements ; I would, if the 
choice were offered, prefer death to even one stroke 
of a whip, as the Prince of the Faithful well knows. 



El Fadhl is Flogged. 103 

You yourself know too that we have always main- 
tained our reputation at the expense of our wealth ; 
how then should we now shield our wealth at the 
expense of our bodies ? Execute your orders, if you 
have any !" Thereupon Mesrur brought some whips 
out of a napkin which he had with him, and ordered 
his attendants to inflict on El Fadhl two hundred 
stripes. This was done with so much cruelty that 
the sufferer was nearly dead when the punishment 
was concluded. Fortunately for him, there was in 
the prison a man skilled in surgery, and he was at 
once called in to attend to El Fadhl. After making 
an examination of his back, he declared that his 
patient must have made a mistake, and that he could 
not have received more than fifty lashes. This was^ 
however, only to reassure him, for he afterwards 
owned that a thousand could not have left worse 
marks. He then induced him to lie on his back on 
a reed-mat, trod upon his chest, and afterwards 
dragged him along the ground on his back till the 
flesh was torn away in strips. This rough mode of 
treatment really saved El Fadhl's life, for it restored 
the circulation, and formed healthy wounds which in 
due time healed up. El Fadhl, on his recovery, 
borrowed a thousand dirhems from a friend and 
offered them to the successful surgeon, who refused to 
take them. Thinking that he had offered too little, 
he borrowed another thousand^ which the man also 



104 Haroun Alraschid. 

refused, saying that he could not accept a fee, however 
large, for curing the most generous of the generous. 
As the doctor was really a poor man, this generosity 
surprised El Fadhl greatly, and he owned that it far 
exceeded any munificence of his own. 

Yahya, the father, died suddenly in prison, in 
November, 805 A.D., at the age of seventy. 

After his death a paper was found upon him 
containing the following words : — " The accuser has 
gone on before to the tribunal, and the accused shall 
follow soon. The magistrate will be that just Judge 
who never errs and needs no witnesses." 

This was brought to Haroun, upon whom it had 
the effect that its writer no doubt intended, of throw- 
ing him into a fit of melancholy and abject fear. 

El Fadhl, too, died in prison, of cancer of the 
tongue, three years after his father. It will be 
remembered that he was the Caliph's foster-brother, 
and when the latter heard of his death, he said, " My 
doom is not far from his ! " and the event proved that 
he was right. 

The following anecdote, related by Abd er Rahman, 
a member of the imperial family, who held a high 
ecclesiastical post at Kufa, exhibits in a touching 
manner the vicissitudes of this noble and unfortunate 
family. He says : — " Going once to visit my mother 
on the day of the ' Festival of Sacrifices,' I found her 
conversing with an elderly woman of respectable 



The Last of the Barmecides, 105 



appearance, but dressed in si abby clothes. My 
mother asked me if I knew who her visitor was, and 
on my replying that I did not, she said — * This is the 
mother of Jaafer the Barmecide.' I turned towards 
her, and, saluting her with the utmost respect, said — 
' Dear madame ! what is the strangest thing you have 
ever witnessed V ' My son,' she answered, ' there was 
a time when this feast found me with four hundred 
slaves in my escort, and yet I thought my son did 
not do as much for me as he ought ; but now the 
feast has come round again, and all I want is two 
sheepskins, one to serve as my bed and one for me to 
wear.' I gave her five hundred dirhems, and she 
almost died for joy. She afterwards became a 
constant visitor at our house, till death parted us." 

The Barmecides left behind them many who 
sincerely regretted their sad fate, but it was not 
often safe to mourn over the victims of the 
Caliph's wrath. One Ibrahim, who had been a 
friend of Jaafer, and received great favours at his 
h.ands, was so affected at his death, that he took to 
drinking, and when in his cups would weep for him, 
and swear to take vengeance upon his murderer. 
Ibrahim's own son and one of his eunuchs betrayed 
him to Alraschid, who sent for him, and with a great 
show of friendship, induced him to drink wine until 
he became intoxicated. Then the Caliph began 
himself to lament Jaafer's loss, and said that he would 



io6 Haroun Alraschid. 

rather have lost his kingdom than such a friend, 
declaring that he had never tasted sleep since the 
fatal day. At this Ibrahim shed tears, said that 
his highness was indeed to blame, and that they 
should never look on Jaafer's like again. Having 
thus treacherously wormed his secret out of him, 
Alraschid rose up with a curse, and in a few moments 
the imprudent sympathiser with the Barmecides was 
himself a corpse. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LATTER END. 

^r^HE fall of the Barmecide family, and the conse- 
-*• quent ruin of all their dependants, made so bad 
an impression in Bagdad, that Haroun was induced 
to move his residence from that city to Rakka. Even 
before this, he had shown a distaste for the capital, 
and had chosen Kufa for his abode, but the partiality 
of the inhabitants for the family of Ali made this 
place disagreeable to him. The reasons alleged by 
him, and probably the true ones, for this change were 
the constant outbreaks in Mesopotamia ; and the 
feeling in favour of the Ommiade party which 
prevailed throughout the northern provinces, made 
it indeed desirable that he should at least proceed 
there and overawe the disaffected populations with 
his presence. 

Khorassan, the head-quarters of the Persian national 
party, and the hotbed of Shiah fanaticism, was always 
one of the most turbulent provinces in the empire. 
We have seen how, under Abu Moslem, it was able 



io8 Haroun Alraschid. 

to overturn the Ommiade throne, and it now seemed 
likely to prove equally fatal to the House of Abbas. 

In the year 796, a serious revolt broke out there, 
headed by one Hamzeh ibn Atrak, who, after pillaging 
the province of Kohistan and murdering the inhabi- 
tants, at length made a stand at Bushenj. The 
Governor of Herat marched against him with 600 
men, but was defeated and slain in the first engage- 
ment. 

Ali ibn Isa, Governor of Khorassan, then sent his 
son. El Husein, against the insurgents with 10,000 
men ; but as he would not attack Hamzeh, he was 
removed, and his brother Isa made general in his 
place. He was at first unsuccessful, but ultimately 
succeeded in dispersing the rebel forces and killing a 
number of them. Hamzeh sought refuge in Kohistan 
with only forty followers. 

Isa took a severe revenge upon those who had 
taken part in the insurrection, killing more than 
30,000 men, and burning all the villages that had 
favoured the insurgents. 

Hamzeh made another attempt to assert himself, 
but was defeated, wounded in the face, and driven to 
hide himself in the vineyards near Asfzar ; from which 
he however issued, destroyed the neighbouring villages, 
and put all the inhabitants to the sword. Among 
other atrocities, he and his followers attacked a school 
and killed thirty boys, with their schoolmaster. Tahir 



Misgovernment in Khorassan. 109 

ibn Husein, afterwards a famous leader in the civil 
war that followed Haroun's death, and at that time 
Lieutenant-Governor of Bushenj, was aroused to 
action, and inflicted a decisive blow on the rebels. 
[lis mode of punishment was a terrible one; he 
caused two trees to be bent down together, and then 
tying a man to them, let go, and the trees, flying 
back to their original position, tore the unfortunate 
wretch in halves. 

Hamzeh himself escaped, and made terms with the 
L'Overnment. 

All ibn Isa now gave himself up entirely to enrich- 
ing himself at the expense of the people he was sent 
to rule over. So flagrant were his acts of injustice, 
S'-) exorbitant his extortions, and so many and 
rgent complaints were sent by the inhabitants of 
Khorassan to Alraschid, that he determined person- 
ally to investigate the matter. He accordingly 
summoned Ali to Rhe, whither he had proceeded 
v/ith two of his sons ; but the Governor brought such 
magnificent presents for the Caliph, that he was 
'dlowed to return to his government loaded with 
resh marks of Haroun's confidence and distinction. 
This total disregard of their interests goaded the 
])eople of Khorassan to madness, and the feeling of 
dislike to their Arab masters soon ripened into one 
of scarcely concealed hatred. 

The massacre of the Barmecide family made their 



no Haroun /{Iraschid. 

indignation still more intense, and the next rebel 
leader who appeared upon the scene found the whole 
population eager to rush to his standard. This was 
one Raff ibn Leith, a grandson of Nasr ibn Sujam, 
who had been slain in Abu Moslem's rebellion. 

The incident which led to his revolt was a romantic 
one, and characteristic of Mohammedan society at the 
period. 

Raff, a bold and handsome cavalier, had conceived 
an affection for the wife of a freedman of the Caliph^ 
whose husband had deserted her, and had set up a 
separate establishment at Bagdad. 

Failing to induce the husband to put away the 
lady, who had considerable property of her own, Rafi 
contrived to make her pretend, to renounce her faith 
in El Islam, on which the husband divorced her 
with the formula which makes the dissolution of the 
marriage tie irrevocable, unless the woman be first 
married and then divorced by another person. 

The Caliph, on hearing of this device, was furious, 
and ordered Raff to be imprisoned and beaten, and 
the lady to be paraded through the streets of Samar- 
cand with her face blackened, and seated upon a 
donkey. The first part of the sentence was executed, 
but the parties concerned managed to avoid the 
second. 

Raff escaped from prison not long after, and took 
refuge with Ali ibn Isa ; but finding that his wife 



Insurrection in Persia. in 

was still kept away from him, he endeavoured to 
raise a rebellion. 

The unpopularity of Ali ibn Isa had made the 
[itople ripe for a revolt, and they responded enthusi- 
astically to Raff's call. Ali sent his son to quell the 
disturbance, but he was defeated and killed. He 
next took the field in person, but was also repulsed. 
v)n this the movement spread with astonishing 
rapidity, and the people of Balkh having joined, put 
Ali's officers to death and sacked his palace. 

Defeated at all points, he escaped to Merv, and 

sent word to the Caliph of what was going on. The 

i ,surgents had, however, from the first declared their 

: yalty to the Caliph, and maintained that their only 

rievance Vv^as against the Viceroy, Ali. 

Haroun determined to remove the cause of their 
discontent ; but the deposition, under the circum- 
stances, of a powerful officer who had still money 
and troops at his command, could only be managed 
with great precaution. 

For this difficult task he selected Herthemah, one 
o^ his most trusted generals, and who, being himself 
a Persian, knew the temper of the people with whom 
tie would have to do. 

Sending for this distinguished ofificer, the Caliph 

aid — " I am about to entrust you with a mission 

A\hich must be kept secret until the proper time : 

\\ your very shirt should guess it, destroy it. I 



112 Hai^oun Alraschid. 

hereby appoint you Governor of Khorassan, but 
should Ali ibn Isa learn it, he would resist you by 
force of arms. Give out to the troops that you are 
marching to his aid ; but when you reach Merv, 
arrest him, and compel him to make restitution of 
all the property which he has extorted from the 
people." Haroun then made out the order appointing 
Herthemah to the governorship, and gave him three 
letters to take with him. One of them was a call 
on the soldiery to aid the new governor in restoring 
order ; the second was addressed to the people ol 
Khorassan, promising them redress, and exhorting 
them to loyal obedience ; and the third was addressed 
to Ali ibn Isa himself, and reproaching him in bitter 
terms for alienating the affection of the people from 
their sovereign. 

Herthemah set out for Merv at the head of twenty 
thousand men, and Ali, who supposed that he had 
come to assist him, received him with the customary 
honours at the gate of the city. Herthemah accom- 
panied Ali to the palace, and when they had dined, 
showed him the Caliph's letter. The deposed 
governor yielded at once, was loaded with fetters, 
and taken day after day to the great mosque of 
Merv, and compelled to answer the claims of all 
who demanded restitution at his hands of what he 
had defrauded them of. 

Ali was sent on a camel without a saddle to Rakka, 



spread of the Rebellion. 1 1 3 

all his relations and friends were arrested, and his 
property, consisting of about three million pounds 
terling in gold and 500 camel-loads of treasure, was 
confiscated. This sum of course went into the 
Caliph's treasury, and not back into the pockets of 
the unfortunate Khorassanites, from whom it had 
been plundered. Compensation to a certain extent 
had, however, been made to the inhabitants of Merv, 
who had addressed to the Court a formal demand for 
repayment of the sums that Ali had extorted from 
them. 

In the meantime, Rafi's rebellion was continually 
extending itself, and all Transoxania was included in 
the movement. Herthemah's troops refused to cross 
the Oxus until reinforcements came. This news 
being brought to the Caliph, he determined to take 
the field in person. 

In the year 192 A.H., Alraschid set out from 
Rakka, to Bagdad, on the way to Khorassan, leaving 
liis son, El Kasim, in charge of the city. On 
the fifth of the month Sha'ban he proceeded from 
Bagdad to Nahrawan, having entrusted the governor- 
ship of the ex-capital to another son, El Mamun. 
On the departure of the Caliph, El Fadhl ibn Sahl, a 
Persian, said to his master. El Mamun, " You do not 
•low what may happen to Alraschid, and Khorassan 

your own province; but your brother Emin has 
l^'ken precedence of you, and the best that you can 



114 Haroun Alraschid, 

hope from him is that he will rob you of your rights 
of succession, for he is the son of Zobeideh, and his 
relations are all of the Hashemi clan. Insist, then 
that you shall go with the Caliph. This advice EJ 
Mamun took, and after some trouble obtained hii^ 
request. 

This Fadhl ibn Sahl was a Persian, and a protdge 
of the Barmecide family. He was originally a 
Magian by religion, but had recently become a 
convert to Islam. He was appointed tutor to El 
Mamun, and gained a complete ascendency over th? 
young prince. 

In the persons of Haroun's two sons. El Mamun 
and El Emin, the same conflict was to be fought out 
which had from the very beginning shaken the rank^ 
of El Islam. El Mamiin came of a Persian mother, 
while El Emfn, being a son of Haroun's cousin and 
favourite wife, Zobeideh, was of purely Arab descent. 

The question of the succession to the throne was 
a source of trouble to Haroun, as it had been to 
his predecessors, and his endeavours to settle the 
difficulty led to the very consequences which he was 
so anxious to avoid, and ultimately resulted in the 
disrupture and final fall of the empire. 

His two eldest sons were Mohammed El Emin 
and Abdallah el Mamun. The first of these was not 
only of unmixed Arab descent, but of the Prophet's 
own family, the Hashemis, and was, therefore, the 



Rivalry between Harouns Sons. 115 

natural choice of the Arab orthodox party. He 
had all the Arab virtues of a noble presence and 
undoubted personal bravery, but he entirely lacked 
administrative capacity, and was addicted to luxury 
and indolent enjoyments. Abdallah el Mamun, on 
the contrary, was the son of a Persian mother, and, 
therefore, quite as naturally enlisted the warmest 
sympathies of the Persian section. He was, more- 
over, a man of great intellectual capacity and energy. 

Haroun Alraschid saw that the two brothers would 
be forced into a strife after his death, even if they 
did not themselves seek it, for the Arab party, who 
had triumphed on the downfall of the Barmecides, 
would naturally seek to strengthen their position by 
placing a prince upon the throne whose family 
traditions were all in strict accord with their own ; 
while, on the other hand, the Persians would 
endeavour to regain their lost ground by the election 
of a Caliph with purely Persian proclivities. It was 
almost inevitable that the old battle between Jew 
and Gentile, Arab and Persian, would sooner or later 
be fought out in the names of the two young princes. 

To avoid the threatened evil, Haroun resolved 
to divide the empire into two parts, leaving to 
Abdallah the Eastern provinces, where the Persian 
element prevailed, and it was arranged that he 
should fix his capital at Merv ; while Emin had 
Arabia, Irak, Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa, 



ii6 Haroim Alraschid. 

where the Arabs predominated. This carried with 
it the sovereignty of Bagdad, the guardianship of the 
holy cities, and the spiritual headship of Islam. 

In the case of the death of either, the government 
of the entire empire was to revert to the survivor. It 
is needless to point out the danger of the last clause, 
even if the rest of the arrangement had not been so 
thoroughly imprudent. 

When this partition was resolved upon, Haroun 
took his two sons on a pilgrimage to Mecca, with the 
view of obtaining from them a solemn ratification of 
the arrangement on this sacred spot. 

In the Ka'abeh itself the two brothers bound them- 
selves to respect the compact made by their father 
on their behalf, always religiously to observe each 
other's rights. The document in which these stipu- 
lations were embodied was signed by the nobles and 
great officers of the empire, and was suspended on 
the door of the Holy House. The man who was 
affixing it to the door allowed it to fall from his 
hand upon the ground, and those present did not fail 
to notice the unlucky omen ;, although, in truth, it 
needed no special gift of divination to foresee the 
result. 

How severely the question exercised the mind of 
Alraschid the following anecdotes will show. 

El Kusai', a celebrated writer and savant of the 
time, relates — " I presented myself one day before 



Emin and MamiJLn. 1 1 7 

Alraschid, and, after having passed the ordinary 
conipliments, was about to retire, when he ordered 
me to take a seat. As soon as the great body of the 
courtiers had departed, leaving only myself and a 
few of the Caliph's favourite attendants behind, 
Haroun said, ' AH, would you like to see Mohammed 
and Abdallah (Emin and Mamun) ?' ' Prince of the 
Faithful,' I replied, ' how I long to see them, and 
how it would please me to behold how God has 
blessed your Majesty in them.' Therefore he ordered 
them to be brought before him, and after a short 
delay the two young princes entered, like two stars 
illuminating the horizon. Affable but dignified in 
their demeanour, they advanced, with eyes cast down, 
into the middle of the room. Alraschid then placed 
them, Mohammed on his right and Abdallah on his 
left hand, and requested me to examine them in 
the Koran and in their other studies. They answered 
all my questions so readily and so politely, that their 
father could not conceal his pride and joy, and he 
dismissed them with a tender embrace. As they left, 
I noticed the tears running down his cheeks, and he 
confided to me the fears that he even then entertained 
of future rivalry and dissension between them." 

From the very first, the Arab party sought to 
influence the Caliph in favour of his son Emin. The 
poet El Omani once addressed him upon the subject 
in so stirring a speech that Haroun said, " Rejoice, 



ii8 Haroun Alraschid. 



O Omani, for Emin shall surely be my successor !" 
" Prince of the Faithful," he replied, " I do rejoice, 
as the herbage rejoices in the rain, as a barren woman 
rejoices in a son, and as a sick man rejoices in his 
new-found health. He is a peerless prince, who will 
defend his honour, and resemble his ancestors." 
" What," asked Haroun, " do you think of his 
brother Abdallah .?" " Good pasture," said the other, 
" but not like the saadan." ^ " God slay this man for 
an Arab of the desert !" said Haroun ; " how well he 
knows how to urge me on ! As for me, by Allah, I 
find in Abdallah the resolution of El Mansur, the 
piety of El Mehdi, and the pride of El Hadi ; and, 
by Allah, if I dared to compare him to a fourth {i.e., 
to the prophet), he would deserve it." ' 

El Asma'i also recounts that one day he found the 
Caliph in a state of extraordinary agitation, at one 
moment sitting down, at another throwing himself at 
full length on the couch. As the visitor entered the 
room, Haroun burst into tears, and murmured— 

" Let him alone o'er nations rule 

Whose mind is firm, whose heart is pure; 
Avoid the vacillating fool 

Whose thoughts and speech are never sure." 

On hearing this, El Asma'i knew that the Caliph 

1 Saadan is a thorny plant said to be extremely fattening for cattle. 
The expression is proverbial. 



Harouns Fears abozit the Succession. 119 

was intent on some important project, and the fact 
was soon proved by his sending Mesrur to summon 
Yahya before him. When the aged minister arrived, 
Haroun said, " O Abu 1 Fadhl,^ the prophet of God, 
on whom be peace, died without a testament, when 
Islam was yet in the vigour of youth, and the faith 
was fresh. The Arabs were united, and God had 
granted security and honour after peril and abase- 
ment. Then followed the quarrels for the succession, 
with the melancholy results you wot of. For me, I 
intend to regulate my succession, and to let it pass 
into the hands of one whose character and conduct I 
approve, and of whose political capacity I am assured. 
Such an one is Abdallah (Mamun) ; but the Beni 
Hashem incline to Mohammed (Emin) to further 
their own desires, capricious, extravagant, and 
sensual though they know him to be, and ever 
subject to the influence of women. Now, if I show 
my preference for Abdallah, I let loose against me 
the hatred of the house of Hashim ; but if I make 
Mohammed my only heir, I fear it will bring trouble 
on the State." After a long deliberation, the com- 
promise to which I have already alluded was decided 
upon. Zobeideh used all her influence with her 
husband in favour of her son, and complained bitterly 

^ Mohammedans usually receive a familiar name after their eldest 
son ; the prophet Mohammed, for example, is known as Abu 1 Kasim, 
from an infant son who died. 



I20 - Haroun A Iras chid. 



that the Caliph had refused him the military sub- 
sidies which he had accorded to his brother. " Who 
are you," said Alraschid, angrily, "to judge of my 
acts ? Thy son has a peaceable province, while 
Abdallah has one in a state of war, wherein he has 
more need of troops and money. I have no fear that 
Abdallah will harm your son ; but I greatly fear that 
your son will be a source of danger to him." 

The state of the Caliph's health when he set out 
for Khorassan made it necessary for the respective 
partisans of the two young princes to be on the alert, 
and the two parties were only awaiting the sovereign's 
decease to open the game. They had not long to 
wait. 

Alraschid had not proceeded far upon his way 
when he said to his aide-de-camp, Es Sabah et Tabari, 
" I do not think you will see me much longer, for you 
do not know what I feel !" Es Sabah tried to reassure 
him, but he turned aside to rest beneath a tree, and 
bade his attendants leave him. Then he uncovered 
himself, and showed his companion a silk bandage 
with which he had bound himself about. " I suffer," 
said he, " terribly ; but I dare not let anyone know 
it, for all about me are spies from one or other of 
my sons. Mesrur watches me on the part of El 
Mamun, and Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou on the part of 
El Emin, and there is not one that does not count 
my breaths, and measure the time I have to live. To 



The E7id approaches. 121 

prove this to you, I will call for a horse, and you will 
see that they will bring me a sorry jade to make me 
worse ; but do not speak of this again." Es Sabah 
uttered a prayer that the Caliph's Hfe might be 
spared ; but when the horse was brought, it turned 
out exactly as the Caliph had foretold. The latter 
merely gave one look at Es Sabah, and mounted 
without a word. 

.' This anecdote shows plainly how miserable were, 
0^ after all, the latter days of the great and glorious 
Alraschid. Intoxicated with selfishness and inordi- 
nate pride, he had destroyed his best friends, alienated 
the affection of his kinsmen, and had instilled fear 
rather than love into the hearts of his subjects. He 
knew that his two sons were watching eagerly for 
his death, ready to rend each other like two dogs 
over his inheritance ; and the mighty Caliph, whose 
nod could shake an empire, dared not reveal even to 
his own physician the painful malady from which he 
was suffering, or ask his attendants for another and a 
better horse. 

During this expedition the Caliph never ceased to 
complain of his ministers, and, in spite of himself, to 
show how much he missed the clear counsels and the 
prompt action of the Barmecides. 

After crossing the heights of Hulwan, he halted 
at Kermanshah and harangued his troops. " There 
have been troubles," said he, " both in the East and 



122 Haroun Alraschid. 

West. The West is now quieted, and I shall know 
how to quiet the East also, although Yahya and his 
sons are no more with me to lend me aid." 

He was accompanied by his new Vizier, El Fadhl 
ibn er Rabia. 

This man's father had been Vizier to El Mehdi, 
Haroun's father, and he himself had continued to 
hold office during the short reign of El Hadi. On 
Haroun's accession to the throne, he was superseded 
by Yahya the Barmecide. He had, moreover, been 
treated with uniform contumely by Yahya and all his 
family, and had therefore but little cause to love 
them, On the destruction of the Barmecides, he was 
appointed Prime Minister, and recognised as the 
leader of the Arab party. 

On his arrival in the neighbourhood of Tus, the 
Caliph still endeavoured to conceal his weakness and 
fatigue, but he grew at length so prostrate that he 
was obliged to be carried by his attendants. His 
condition made a great commotion among all ranks 
of his army, perceiving which, Haroun insisted upon 
attempting to ride, that the soldiers might see him 
and regain confidence. Having unsuccessfully tried 
to mount first a charger, then a hack, and afterwards 
an ass, he cried out, " Take me back, take me back ! 
By Allah, the men are right !" 

Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou, his physician, tells us that 
one day he came in to the Caliph while the latter 



Harouns Presentiment of his Death. 123 

was at Rakka, and found him quite prostrate, and 
scarcely able to open his eyes or to move. Being 
asked the cause of his illness, Haroun related a 
vision he had had that night, which weighed terribly 
upon his spirits ; he fancied that an arm and hand, 
which he recognised, but whose owner's name he 
had forgotten, protruded itself from under his bed, 
and showed him some red earth, while the voice of 
some unseen person cried, ' This is the soil of the land 
in which you will be buried,' Haroun asked the 
name of the country, and was told, ' Tus.' Gabriel 
endeavoured to assure him that it was nothing but 
a dream arising from a disordered stomach, and from 
too much pondering upon the revolted state of that 
part of his dominions, and ordered the Caliph rest 
and recreation, which soon dispelled all recollection 
of the unpleasant incident. 

But it was in the red earth of Tiis that the Caliph 
was to be buried. While engaged on this expedition 
against Raff ibn Leith, Haroun, halting one day at a 
village in Tus, suddenly staggered to his feet in great 
excitement, but was unable to stand. His wives 
and attendants crowding round, he said to Bakhtishou, 
" Do you remember my vision about Tus at Rakka ?" 
Then slightly raising his head, he looked at Mesrur, 
and bade him bring him some of the earth of the 
garden in which he was encamped. Mesrur returned 
with a little of the garden soil in his open palm, and 



124 Haroun Alraschid. 

held it out to Alraschid, who shrieked out, " This is 
the hand and arm I saw in my dream, and this 
is the self-same red earth!" and gave way to 
uncontrollable emotion, weeping and sobbing like a 
child. 

While in this pitiful condition, Bashir, brother of 
the rebel leader, Raff, was brought a prisoner into 
the camp. Alraschid ordered him to be brought into 
his presence. 

" If I had no more time left me to live," said he, 
" than would suffice to move my lips, I would say 
kill him!" 

Then sending for a butcher, he caused the prisoner 
to be hacked to pieces, limb from limb, alive, before 
his eyes. 

When the horrible sentence was executed, the 
Caliph fainted away. 

This was the last public act of the "good Haroun 
Alraschid!" 

On coming to himself, he knew that his last hour 
was quickly drawing nigh, and bade his attendants 
dig a grave for him in the house in which he was 
then staying, and sent for a number of readers, who 
intoned the whole of the Koran in his presence, all 
reciting together different chapters ; the dying Caliph 
lying in the meantime in a sort of litter on the brink 
of his own grave. 

After one of the fainting fits that immediately 



Death of Haroun Alraschid. 125 

preceded his death, he opened his eyes, and, looking 
towards his vizier, he said, " O Fadhl ! 

'•'And has the time I dreaded come at last? 
Ay, all men's eyes are staring now on me ; 
Those pity me who envied in times past. 

Let us be patient ; what will be, will be ! 
I weep for friends I loved in times of yore, 

For fleeting joys that come again no more ! " ' 

During his last moments, he called for a thick 
blanket, and insisted upon Sahl ibn Said, the 
attendant who was watching by him, being covered 
with it. Presently a paroxysm of pain supervened, 
and Sahl jumped up ; but the Caliph bade him lie 
down again, and would not allow him to wait upon 
him. Presently he called out, ** Where are you, 
Sahl V The other answered, " Here ; but though I 
am reclining, my heart will not let me rest while the 
Prince of the Faithful is suffering so much." At this 
Alraschid burst out into a hearty laugh — " Sahl," said 
he, " remember in a moment like this what the poet 
has said — 

* Descended from a race so great, 
I firmly bear the hardest fate.' " 

This was his last effort, and shortly after, he 
breathed his last in the presence of El Fadhl, his 
vizier, Mesrur, his chief executioner and constant 
attendant, and one or two other members of his court. / 



126 Haroun Alraschid. 

Haroun's last instructions were that the vizier 
should make over to Mamun all the troops and 
money which were with him, in order that he might 
effectually repress the rebellion in Khorassan, and 
take peaceable possession of his share of the empire. 

The minister, however, had the interests of his own 
party too much at heart, and, as soon as Haroun 
Alraschid was buried, he marched hastily back to 
Bagdad to join Emin, paying no heed to the re- 
monstrances of Mamun, who sent an envoy to stop 
him. 

Mamun was furious at this defection of Fadhl 
ibn er Rabi, and he had at his side Fadhl ibn 
Sahl, whose devotion to the Persian cause was only 
equalled by his hatred to his namesake, Emm's vizier. 
This man pointed out to his master that he must 
prepare for a decisive struggle, and that his brother 
, had, by his minister's act in depriving him of his 
1 troops, really aimed a blow at his succession to that 
part of the inheritance which his father had left him. 
He also reminded him of the powerful influence 
which Persia had exercised in the elevation of the 
Abbasides to power in Abu Moslem's days, and, in 
fine, urged him to strengthen his position by con- 
ciliating the Persian people, and then to aim at 
grasping the whole and undivided sovereignty for 
himself. 

To this advice Mamun gave a not unwilling ear. 



Hostilities between Emin and Mamun, 127 

He made peace with the Khorassan rebels, and 
endeavoured by every means in his power to 
ingratiate himself with his new subjects. He was, 
however, astute enough not to break openly with his 
brother, but to wait until the latter should commit 
some overt act of hostility towards him, which would 
make action on his part seem to be simply in the 
interests of justice and his own self-defence. 

He had not long to wait. Urged on by El Fadhl 
:bn Rabi, Emin first set aside the succession to the 
I^aliphate of Mamun in favour of his infant son 
VIousa, next ordered the omission of Mamun's name 
.n the public Friday prayer ; and finally sent a 
nission to Mamun demanding the cession of three of 
'is provinces. This last demand was refused point 
hank, and war was then rendered inevitable. 

Emin, stimulated by the blindly fanatical partisan- 
;hip of his vizier, released Ali 'bn Isa from prison, 
:)]aced him at the head of the army, and conferred 
ipon him the governorship of Khorassan, which he 
vas to take possession of on his obtaining the victory 
c/er Mamun. This appointment was the only thing 
v'anting to consolidate the power of the latter ; for the 
ersians who were on his side not only had their old 
;rudge against the Arabs to revenge, but they found 
lemselves once more threatened with the tyranny of 
. man, to get rid of whose exactions they had spent 
heir very life's blood. Meantime, an immense force 



128 Haroun Ah^aschid. 

was placed under All's command ; Zobeideh, Emin's 
mother, presented the general with a set of silver 
chains with which to bring back Mamun captive ; 
and Emm accompanied the army for the first eight 
miles of their march from Bagdad. 

It is not my intention to enter into a detailed 
account of the civil war of \yhich this contest is the 
opening scene ; suffice it to say, that after a briei 
struggle Mamun triumphed, Bagdad was besieged 
and taken, and Emin himself captured and slain. 

Haroun Alraschid left behind him an immense sum 
of money (according to some authorities, no less than 
900 millions dinars — 400 millions sterling!), besides 
lands and slaves, in all an extraordinary treasure, 
considering his lavish generosity and unlimited^ 
expenditure. 

This wealth, only to be compared with the accumu- 
lations of some of the Byzantine emperors, enables us 
to form some idea of the enormous sums that came 
into the imperial coffers. This money was not always 
honestly come by. Not only did the provinces suffer 
such severe exactions that one or other of them was 
always in a state of insurrection, but his generals and 
lieutenant-governors were frequently forced to ^\y^ 
up their hoards, and the property of private individuals 
was often not respected. 

As an instance of the Caliph's high-handed pro- 
ceedings in this respect, we may quote the case of 



Victims of Alraschid's jealousy. 129 

Mohammed, son of Suleiman, a cousin of Mansur, 
who died at Basrah in A.D. 789. 

Immediately on his decease, Alraschid sent to con- 
fiscate the enormous property which he had left 
behind him. The agents seized on what they 
thought suitable for the Caliph, including sixty 
millions in money ; and Haroun, on receiving this 
vast amount, made large presents to his boon com- 
panions and musicians, and laid up the remainder in 
his treasury. 

The pretext of which Alraschid availed himself 
to confiscate Mohammed's property was afforded 
by the latter's brother, Jaafer ibn Suleiman. He had 
calumniated the deceased through envy, and had 
assured the Caliph that he had not an estate or any 
property that he had not mortgaged for more than 
its value to procure funds to assist him in his designs 
on the Caliphate, and declared that under these 
circumstances the Commander of the Faithful would 
be justified In appropriating it. Alraschid kept all 
Jaafer ibn Suleiman's letters, and when Mohammed 
died, and Jaafer, who was the only uterine brother he 
had, would have inherited all this wealth, Haroun 
adduced his own letters against him, and seized the 
property. 

Another victim of Alraschid's jealousy was Mousa 
ibn Jaafer, a lineal descendant of Fatlma, the 
Prophet's daughter. One of Mousa's kinsfolk, who 



130 Haroun Alraschid, 

had an enmity against him, reported to Alraschid that 
people used to pay him, Mousa, a fifth of their property, 
looking upon him as the legitimate Imam. He further 
declared that Mousa was contemplating an insurrec- 
tion. These tales, repeatedly brought to Alraschid, 
at length made a profound impression on him, and 
caused him deep anxiety. The informer was 
rewarded with a large sum of money, the payment of 
which was charged upon the provincial revenues. 
The traitor did not, however, live to enjoy the fruits 
of his treachery, but was presently seized with a 
violent illness, of which he died. Sudden and fatal 
illnesses were not uncommon with those whose 
presence caused the Caliphs any anxiety. 

The first ostensible cause of Alraschid's resentment 
against Mousa was that, being on a pilgrirnage to the 
sacred cities, he went to Medina, and on entering the 
shrine where the Prophet is buried, he said, " Peace 
be upon thee, O apostle of God, O my -cousin!" 
adding the last words by way of boasting his 
superiority over those who stood round him. 

Upon this, Mousa, who was also present, then 
advanced and said, " Peace be on thee, O my father !" 
in allusion to his own lineal descent from the Prophet 
through his daughter Fatima. 

At this Haroun's face changed, and he said, " This 
is a very strong boast, O Mousa ! " After this he 
took Mousa with him to Irak, and threw him into 



Imprisonment of Abd el Melik ibn Salih, 131 

prison in the house of Es Sindi. Here he was subse- 
quently put to death by order of the CaHph. This 
was done secretly, for fear of the effect which it might 
have upon the public, with whom Mousa was a great 
favourite, both on account of his personal character 
and of his direct descent from AH. In order to avoid 
scandal, a jury of notables was impanelled to examine 
into the causes of the death. They testified that the 
prisoner had died a natural death. 

Abd el Melik ibn Salih, a member of the house of 
Abbas, and therefore a near kinsman of the Caliph, 
also fell under the royal displeasure. He had a son 
named Abd er Rahman, after whom he was called, 
according to a prevalent Moslem custom, Abu (or 
father of) Abd er Rahman. This unnatural son con- 
spired with one Camamah, a secretary, to persuade 
Haroun that his father wasi harbouring designs upon 
the Caliphate. He was accordingly arrested,, and 
confined in the house of Rabi ibn Fadhl, the vizier. 

One day Haroun sent for the prisoner, and taunted 
him with base ingratitude, and with having repaid the 
favours and honours which had been heaped on him 
with treacherous designs against his master. " No, 
Prince of the Faithful," answered Abd el Melik. 
'' Had I done so, I should have been made to repent 
it, as it would have been lawful to take revenge on 
me. You, O Prince of the Faithful ! are the vice- 
gerent of God's Prophet over His people. It is our 



132 Haroun Alraschid. 

duty to obey you, and to give you good advice ; and 
it is your duty to the people to rule them justly and 
pardon their faults." 

" Ah," said Alraschid, " you are humble with your 
tongue and ambitious vi^ith your mind ; here is your 
secretary, Camamah, who testifies to your treachery." 

" Nay," said Abd el Melik, " he cannot surely 
traduce and calumniate me about what he knows 
nothing of." 

Camamah was then brought up, and Alraschid 
bade him speak without fear or hesitation, whereupon 
he declared that Abd el Melik was meditating 
treachery and rebellion against the Caliph. 

"No wonder," cried Abd el Melik, "that he has 
told lies behind my back, for he is calumniating me 
to my very face ! " 

" There is your son Abd er Rahman too," said 
Alraschid ; "he will testify to your ambitious projects. 
If I wished to convict you, I could not have better 
testimony than these two." 

" As for my son," answered the prisoner, " he is 
either acting under orders, or he is a rebellious child. 
If he is acting under orders, there is some excuse for 
him ; and if he is rebellious, then he is an ungrateful 
scoundrel ; God Himself warns us against such 
persons when He says, 'And amongst your very 
wives and children ye have enemies, so beware of 
them." 



Abel el Melik before the Caliph. 133 

On this Alraschid jumped up and cried out, " Your 
case is as clear as day, but I will not act hastily. 
God shall judge between us !" 

" I am content," said Abd el Melik, " to have God 
for my judge, and the Prince of the Faithful to 
execute His judgment, assured that he will not prefer 
his own wrath to his Lord's commands." 

On another occasion the Caliph sent for his 
prisoner, and addressed him in the following 
words : — 

" I desire that he should live, but he desires that I should 
die; 
Beware of those who seem thy friends ; 'tis there that base 
intentions lie. 

By Allah, methinks I see the rain of blood falling with 
its lowering cloud ; already the threatening lightning 
flashes before my eyes ; and as the storm ceases, I see 
left on the ground wristless hands and neckless 
heads ! But gently, gently, ye sons of Hashim ! I 
have smoothed your difficulties and cleared your 
muddy stream, and the reins of circumstances are in 
your hands ; but beware, beware before a crisis comes 
that shall cause hands to fail and feet to fall ! " 

" Nay," said Abd el Melik, " fear God, O Com- 
mander of the Faithful ! in the matter of His subjects 
whom He hath entrusted to your care. Do not show 
ingratitude in place of thanks, nor punishment where 
reward is due. I have always given you sincere 



134 Harotin Alraschid. 

advice ; I have shown unreserved obedience to you; I 
have propped up your empire where it showed signs 
of weakness with supports as firm as Mount Yelemlim; 
I have given your enemies plenty to think of. God 
help me, and commend my life to your mercy, which 
you may not withdraw after having once shown it, and 
all for mere suspicion, which the Scriptures say is a sin, 
or for some rebel who gnaws flesh, by Allah ! and laps 
blood. By Allah ! I have smoothed your difficulties, 
and made your affairs easy. I have made all men's 
hearts content to obey you. How many a whole 
night have I spent working for you ; in how many 
a strait have I stood up for you !" 

To this burst of eloquent appeal Haroun only 
replied, " By Allah ! if it were not for the honour of 
the Beni Hashem, I would cut off" your head !" with 
which speech he sent him back to prison. 

A short time after, however, at the intercession of 
another member of his family, the despot consented 
to relax the rigour of his treatment. Abd el Melik 
remained in confinement until the death of Alraschid, 
when Emin released him from prison, and gave him 
the government of Syria. 

Out of gratitude to his liberator, he took a solemn 
oath that, if Emm were killed during his lifetime, he 
would never own allegiance to Mamun; he died, how- 
ever, before his master. 

On one occasion Alraschid said to Abd el Melik, 



Alraschid threatens Yahya. 135 

" You are not descended from Salih at all." " From 
whom, then?" asked he. "From Merwan," replied 
the Caliph. " Well," was the answer, " I do not care 
which blood of two such thoroughbred sires prevails 
in my veins !" 

After the fall of the Barmecides, Haroun sent one 
day to Yahya in his prison, and promised to reinstate 
him in his former position if he would tell him the 
truth about Abd el Melik's rebellious projects. 

Yahya replied, " By heaven, I never noticed any- 
thing of the kind in Abd el Melik ; but if I had, I 
should have stood between him and you, for your 
kingdom and authority were mine, and all my pros- 
perity or adversity depended upon your own ; how, 
then, is it likely that Abd el Melik would have applied 
to me to help him } If you have treated me as you 
have done, do you not think that he would in that 
case have treated me worse ? For God's sake, do 
not suspect me of such a conspiracy. I saw only 
that he was a fit and proper person, such as I was 
glad to find amongst your own family, and I there- 
fore gave him his appointment, and was well satisfied 
with his conduct. It was only his education, and the 
dignity with which he supported his position, which 
inclined me so in his favour." 

When Haroun received this reply, he sent back the 
messenger with the brutal threat that, if Yahya did 
not confess the truth, he would kill his son, El Fadhl. 



136 Haroun Alraschid. 

Yahya merely replied, with his usual dignity, " You 
have us in your power; do as you please!" The 
messenger, on hearing this, told El Fadhl, and an 
affecting but stoical parting took place between father 
and son. " Are you pleased with me, father ?" " Yes ; 
may God be the same!" El Fadhl was then led 
away as if for execution, but as the Caliph was 
utterly unable to find anything against Yahya, he was 
allowed to rejoin the latter after three days. 

The lady Zobeideh, Haroun's cousin and favourite 
wife, was in no way behind her husband in either 
piety or magnificence. She retained a hundred slave 
girls, who knew the Koran by heart, and whose only 
business was to intone it ; each of these repeated a 
tenth of the book every day, so that the palace in 
which she resided was filled like a hornet's nest with 
a continual humming. 

It was through her munificence that the holy city 
of Mecca was for the first time properly supplied 
with water, which was before extremely scarce, 
especially at the time of the great annual pilgrimages, 
when a single waterskinful often cost as much as a 
dinar. She also caused wells to be sunk along the 
roads leading to the city, and caravanserais to be built 
for the accommodation of the pilgrims. 

Her household was conducted on a most magnifi- 
cent scale ; her meals were always served upon gold 
and silver plate, instead of the simple Arab sufraky 



Haroun Alraschid's Character. 137 

or leathern tray, which was in vogue before her 
time, even with persons of the highest rank ; and the 
litters in which she was borne abroad were con- 
structed of ebony and sandal-wood, richly carved and 
ornamented with silver. She also organised a body- 
guard of slave girls, attired as pages, who attended 
her wherever she went ; and the fashion she thus set 
was followed by all the rich men and exquisites of 
Bagdad. ^ ,,.„.^^^^ 

^^^\x\ judging of Haroun's character, we must not 
merely adopt the modern standard of virtue, but 
must take into account the political opinions of the 
time. He believed, more than any Chambord or 
Carlos, in his divine right ; for was he not the 
successor of the Apostle of God, and His vicegerent 
upon earth ! 

He thought, and all agreed with him, that he had 
a perfect right to put any suspected person to death, 
for to question his authority was to rebel against 
Islam itself, and incur the dreaded charge of 
infidelity. n 

Jaafer himself probably never disputed Haroun's 
right to put him to death, and certainly no one else 
would do so, however much the people generally 
might lament the sentence, or in their own minds 
doubt the propriety of its execution. 

I have in the previous pages related all that is 
known from authentic sources of Haroun Alraschid's 



138 Haroun A Iras chid. 

public and political career. Hitherto we have found 
him very unlike the merry monarch of the Arabian 
Nights, but it must be remembered that he is there 
depicted only under circumstances wherein he was 
subjected to the genial influence of his companions 
the Barmecides, and when free from the cares an,d 
responsibilities of state. 

I will now, by relating some of the anecdotes con- 
cerning him, with which Eastern writings abound, 
endeavour to throw some light upon his private life. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CALIPH OF THE LEGEND. 

THE name of Haroun Alraschid is so associated 
with the Arabian Nights, that it is to that work 
we naturally turn for the lighter incidents in his 
career. The book is, however, somewhat disappoint- 
ing in this respect to the English reader, at least 
partly, because the Caliph there plays a quite sub- 
ordinate partj his adventures forming a mere setting to 
the other stories ; this is in great measure owing to 
the fact that so many of the anecdotes connected with 
him depend for their point either on some untrans- 
lateable verbal quibble or more than equivocal joke. 
The old-fashioned edition, made from Galland's 
French version, which is most generally read, does 
not give a very good idea of the original, nor does 
it present so faithful a picture of Oriental life as 
the more recent translation by Lane. Some of the 
stories, too, are interpolated. It will shock many 
people, for instance, to learn that two of the most 
favourite tales, " Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp " 



I40 Haroun Alraschid. 

and " AH Baba, or the Forty Thieves," are not in the 
original Arabic text. The latter I have myself found 
current under a slightly different form among the 
Bedawin of Sinai, but it is doubtful whether 
" Aladdin " is an Eastern story at all. The life as 
depicted in the Arabian Nights is that of an Arab 
town ; but many of the stories contained in the book 
are evidently borrowed from other and probably 
Persian sources. 

I need not reproduce any of these old familiar tales 
in full, especially as most of them are pure fiction, or 
at least old stories with Haroun Alraschid's nightly 
wanderings in Bagdad used as a setting. In that of 
the " Porter," the " Ladies of Bagdad," and the 
" Three Calendars," the Caliph merely plays the part 
of a listener to the narratives of the others, and, by 
way of rounding off the story, assists^at the denouement, 
and marries one of the principal actresses. This tale, 
or rather series of tales, is simply one of enchantment, 
and at the end the Caliph himself has an interview 
with dijinniyek, or "controlling spirit," who, being a 
Mohammedan, salutes him as the spiritual head of 
the faith. 

Fairy stories are of course as common in the East 
as in Europe, but the supernatural element is some- 
what different. The Persian Peri and the English 
Fairy are one and the same, so far as the etymology 
of the word goes ; but the fallen angel of Persian 



Arab Superstitions. 141 



fable, always yearning for the Paradise she has lost, 
is quite a different being from the little elf of 
Northern superstition. In Arab folk-lore the mys- 
terious agent is either ^ Jinn — i.e., a monstrous being 
with Superhuman powers, created out of fire instead 
of earth, but otherwise resembling man — or else it is 
an Afreet, an embodiment of all that is fierce, 
grotesque, and horrible, but often posssesing a rude 
and mischievous sense of fun, like our own English 
Puck. Other superstitious creations the Arabs have — 
for example, the Hdinah or Sadd, that is, the unquiet 
ghost of a murdered man issuing from the head of 
the corpse, and crying for vengeance ; the Ghoul, a 
mixture of cannibal and vampire, familiar to the 
readers of the Arabian Nights ; and the mythical 
creature consisting only of the front longitudinal half 
section of a human being, which is so firmly believed 
in that many authors gravely assert that the people of 
Yemen hunt them and use them for food. Witches 
and wizards, who obtain control of these supernatural 
powers, are of course common enough in Arabian 
stories, the great source of all magical schools being 
a certain pit at Babylon, where the two fallen angels 
— Harut and Marut — are suspended by the heels 
until the Day of Judgment, but are always willing to 
impart a knowledge of sorcery to anyone who will 
consult them. 

The tale of the three apples, where a fisherman, 



142 Haroun Alraschid. 



casting in his net " for the Caliph's luck," brings up 
the dead body of a young woman, and Haroun 
threatens Jaafer with crucifixion unless he discovers 
the murderer, may relate to an incident which actually 
happened, but has little personal connection with the 
subject of our history. 

The story of Nooreddin and Enees el Jelees, or, 
as the older version has it, the Fair Persian, is another 
in which Haroun Alraschid figures. While on his 
barge upon the Tigris, he notices with surprise that 
the grand saloon of one of his own pleasure palaces 
is brilliantly lighted up. Going there secretly to 
ascertain the cause, he finds the keeper of the palace, 
a Sheikh hitherto renowned for his learning and 
piety, indulging in a drunken orgie with a young 
man and his slave girl, who were flying from the 
vengeance of the local governor. Climbing up a tree 
with Jaafer to watch them, the Caliph sees the Sheikh 
Ibrahim bring a lute — the private instrument of the 
favourite court singer — and hand it to the girl. " By 
Allah!" said he to Jaafer, "if she sing not well, I 
will crucify you all ; but if she sing well, I will 
pardon them and crucify thee." To this reassuring 
speech Jaafer replied, " O Allah ! let her not sing 
well!" "Why.?" asked the Caliph. "That thou 
mayest crucify all of us," said Jaafer, " and then we 
can console each other!" The damsel, however, sang 
and played in so enchanting a manner that Haroun's 



Anecdotes from the '^ Arabiaii Nights!' 143 

wrath was appeased, and he desired to join them 
incognito. This he effected by borrowing the clothes 
of a fisherman who was poaching in the grounds, and, 
introducing himself to the Sheikh and his companions, 
sold them some fish, which he cooked with his own 
hands, and was invited to join the party. How the 
young man turns out to be the son of the late Vizier of 
the Sultan of Basra, and after many subsequent adven- 
tures, in the course of which he narrowly escapes 
falling a victim to the machinations of his rival, and 
ultimately lives happily with his slave girl in Haroun's 
service, the reader will find told at length in the 
Aj'abian Nights. 

Other well-known incidents in the same work 
are the story of " The False Caliph," who took 
advantage of Haroun's well-known penchant for 
incognito nocturnal rambles to personate him and 
amuse himself in a state barge on the Tigris, and 
was at length discomfited by falling in with the 
monarch himself in disguise; and the story of " The 
Sleeper Awakened " (found in almost every known 
language), which is identical with that of Shakspere's 
Christopher Sly in the prologue to "The Taming of 
the Shrew." 

Two anecdotes which are elsewhere related of 
Haroun's justice and sagacity sound somewhat strange 
to a Christian ear. A pieman was convicted before 
him of making his pies of meat unfit for human food, 



144 Haroun Alraschid, 

and was sentenced to have his ear nailed to the door- 
post of his shop, and all his pies thrown outside the 
city gates. A baker also, who had been detected in 
adulterating his bread and giving short weight, was 
condemned to be burnt alive in his own oven, and 
his shop was razed to the ground. Jaafer, the Vizier, 
ventured afterwards to remonstrate with the Caliph 
upon the severity of the sentence. " I have perhaps 
been a little too hasty,'' said Haroun ; and ordered 
Jaafer to prepare some new police regulations for the 
control of the tradesmen of the city. 

The Oriental notion of a monarch's right over the 
life of a subject is somewhat startling. On one 
occasion a Jew astrologer had predicted that the 
Caliph Haroun Alraschid would die within the year, 
and the Sovereign was much exercised about the 
prophecy, and refused to be comforted. At last 
Yahya, his Vizier and Jaafer's father, undertook to 
quiet the royal mind. Sending for the Jew, he asked 
him how long he (the astrologer himself) would live. 
The Jew replied that his art told him that he would 
reach a ripe old age. " Will the Commander of the 
Faithful order him to be immediately executed.?" 
asked Yahya. " Oh ! certainly," said the Caliph ; 
and the wretched man's head was struck off then 
and there. " Your Majesty now sees the value of 
the fellow's predictions," said Yahya ; and the his- 
torians who narrate the event seem to think it not 



Harouns Nocturnal Rambles. 145 

only a smart thing on the minister's part, but a really 
humane and laudable action. For all that, Oriental 
moralists deemed it an important part of their func- 
tions to impress a sense of duty on their sovereigns, 
and an apposite story was often found a convenient 
method of conveying advice which, if offered too 
directly, might have cost the Mentor his head. 

Haroun Alraschid suffered much from sleeplessness, 
and, to divert himself, would either walk incognito 
through the streets of Bagdad, accompanied by his 
trusty companions, Jaafer and Mesrur, or he would 
recline and listen to amusing stories or sentimental 
jioetry. This furnishes really the motive for a great 

>art of the tales of the Arabian Nights, many of the 
uistories there related being told to soothe the Caliph 

n his restless moods. 
During one of these fits, he said to Jaafer, "I am 

leepless to-night, and my heart is contracted, and I 
!:now not what to do." On this, Mesrur, who was 

tanding by, burst out laughing, and Haroun sharply 
isked, " Dost thou laugh at me, or art thou mad V 

No, by Allah! O Commander of the Faithful!" 

aid the eunuch ; " by thy relationship to the Chief 
)f the Apostles, I could not help it. It was the 

udden recollection of a man, named Ibn el Karibee, 

vhom I saw yesterday amusing a crowd on the banks 

)f the Tigris, which made me laugh, for which I 

'lumbly beg your Majesty's pardon." "Bring him 



146 Haroim Ab^aschid. 

here at once," said Alraschid ; and Mesrur, having 
found the wag, brought him to the palace; but, 
before admitting him, bargained with him that he 
•should give him two-thirds of whatever he might 
receive from the Caliph. To this Ibn el Karibee 
agreed after much wrangling, and the two were 
ushered into the imperial presence. 

After the usual ceremonious greeting, the Caliph 
said, " If you do not make me laugh, I will beat you 
three times with this leathern bag," pointing to one 
which lay beside him. The fellow, who was not 
without experience of correction from more formid- 
able-looking instruments — having, indeed, more than 
once brought himself into personal communication 
with the bastinado — thought but little of three blows 
with a leathern bag, and put forth all his strength 
to divert the Sovereign, uttering drolleries enough 
to make a melancholy madman laugh ; but not a 
muscle of the Caliph's face was seen to move. " Now," 
said the Commander of the Faithful, "you have 
deserved the beating;" and, taking up the leathern 
bag, struck the jester one blow therewith, eliciting a 
howl, for the bag was filled with large pebbles, and 
caused no trifling pain. Begging for a moment's 
respite, he told Haroun of the bargain between 
himself and Mesrur, and begged that the two remain- 
ing blows might be given to the eunuch as his share,, 
according to agreement. Mesrur was then called in, 



Abie Nawwds. 147 



and on receiving the first instalment cried out, " O 
Prince of the Faithful ! the third is enough for me, 
give him the two-thirds ! " This restored the Caliph's 
good temper, and, laughing heartily, he rewarded 
them both. 

Many of the smaller anecdotes in the Arabian 
Nights and the works of the native chroniclers, 
though often humorous in the extreme, it is 
impossible to quote ; they exhibit the great per- 
sonages of the Court in a very unfavourable light, 
and the morality of Alraschid and his satellites 
would appear to have been exceptionally low, even 
for these licentious times. At the same time, we 
must make allowance for the fact that Abu Nawwas, 
the hero or narrator of most of the stories, was a 
licensed jester, and in all probability often grossly 
exaggerated the accounts given him, either by the 
Caliph himself or the attendants, of incidents 
occurring in the Imperial harem. 

The stories told of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid 
and Abu Nawwas are innumerable. One is, that the 
two were disputing one day as to the truth of an 
axiom laid down by Abu Nawwas, that " an excuse 
was often worse than the crime," and the poet offered 
to convince the monarch of it before the night was 
over. The Caliph, with a grim humour peculiarly 
his own, promised to take off the jester's head if he 
failed to do so, and went out in a rage. After a 



1 48 Harotm A Iras chid. 

while, Haroun came in a somewhat surly temper to 
his harem, and the first thing that greeted him was 
a kiss from a rough-bearded face. On calling out 
violently for a light and an executioner, he found 
that his assailant was Abu Nawwas himself. 

" What on earth, you scoundrel, do you mean by 
this conduct V asked the enraged Sovereign. " I beg 
your Majesty's most humble pardon," said Abu Naw^- 
■was, " I thought it was your Majesty's favourite wife." 
" What !" shrieked Haroun ; "why, the excuse is worse 
than the crime." " Just what I promised to prove to 
your Majesty," replied Abu Nawwas, and retired, 
closely followed by one of the Imperial slippers. 

Another incident in which Abu Nawwas worsted 
his Royal master is the following : — The Caliph was 
seated in his divan, with his nudamd, or equerries, 
around him, intent upon an evening's amusement. 
Abu Nawwas, however, had not arrived, and the 
Caliph devised a clever plan for punishing him for 
being late. He arranged a game at forfeits, in which 
the rule was to be that every one who did exactly as 
he did should receive a dinar — about half-a-sovereign ; 
but anyone who failed to keep up the game was to 
receive a dozen strokes of the bastinado. Haroun 
then ordered in some eggs, and, putting one under 
his own cushion, commanded his followers to do the 
same, and they had scarcely completed their prepara- 
tions when the missing poet came in. The Calipl: 



Adu Nazvwdss Witticisms. 149 

began the game, and having proposed to Abu Naw- 
was to join, began clucking like a hen, and produced 
an ^gg. Each of the courtiers did the same, and it 
came at last to Abu Nawwas's turn. With all eyes 
fixed on him with a wicked stare, he stalked into the 
middle of the room, flapped his arms against his sides, 
and crowed loudly " Cock-a-doodle doo," to indicate 
that he alone was cock of the walk. 

Another ridiculous story is told of Abu Nawwas, 
that the Caliph once bought his beard of him for a 
sum of m.oney down, and allowed him to keep it till 
it should be wanted. The poet having subsequently 
done something to offend him before the whole court, 
Haroun cried out warningly, " Mind your beard !" 
"Thank Allah!" said Abu Nawwas, "it is mine 
again, since the Commander of the Faithful says 
so !" This reminds us of the courtier who, having 
been inadvertently tiitoye by a King of Spain, 
immediately put on his hat. The monarch, in a 
rage, demanded how he dared to take such a liberty. 
" Sire," was the reply, " I must be a grandee of 
Spain, or his Majesty would not have addressed me 
so familiarly. I therefore stand upon my privileges;" 
and a patent of nobility was of course made out for 
him. 

Abu Nawwas's ready wit saved him on more than 
one occasion from more serious consequences than a 
beating. The Caliph, who was himself much addicted 



I50 Haroun Ah^aschid. 

to drinking and otherwise violating the precepts of 
the Koran, one day in a fit of virtuous indignation 
ordered Abu Nawwas to be executed then and there. 
" Are you going to kill me/' asked the poet, " out 
of mere caprice?" "No," said Haroun Alraschid ; 
" but because you deserve it." "But," pleaded the poor 
fellow, " God Almighty first calls sinners to account, 
and then pardons them. How have I deserved 
death ?" " For that verse of poetry of yours in which 
you say — 

" * Oh, prithee, give me wine to drink, and tell me it is 
wine ! 
Let me have no concealment, when plain dealing may 
be mine.'" 

"And do you know, O Commander of the Faithful," 
asked Abu Nawwas, " whether they gave me it, and 
I did drink .''" " I suspect so," said the Caliph. " And 
would you kill me on suspicion, when the Koran 
says, 'some suspicion is a sin'.''" "You have written 
other things," said Haroun, " which deserve death. 
That atheistic verse of yours, for instance — 

" ' None has e'er come back to tell 

If he in Heaven or Hell doth dwell.'" 

"And has anyone come back to tell us.'*" asked the 
poet. " No," said the monarch. " Then surely you 
would not kill me for telling the truth!" said Abu 
Nawwas. " But, besides all this," continued Haroun, 
" was it not you who wrote those blasphemous lines — 



A bit Nawwds. 151 



" ' Mohammed, thou to whom we look when trouble's 
storms arise, 
Come on, sir, for we twain could beat the Monarch of 
the Skies.'" 

*' Well," asked Abu Nawwas, meekly, " and did we ?" 
" I don't know what you did," answered the Caliph. 
" Then surely your Majesty will not kill me for what 
you don't know." " Cease this nonsense," said Haroun 
Alraschid, getting impatient. " You have over and 
over again in your poetry confessed to things for 
which you deserve death." " God knew all about 
those things," said Abu Nawwas, " long before your 
Majesty did, and He said in the Koran, ' Those poets 
are followed by their familiar demons. Seest thou not 
how they wander in every valley, and how they say 
things which they never do ! '" " Let the fellow go," 
said Haroun ; " there 's no catching him any way." 

How useful it was to cultivate repartee and ready 
wit the following incident will testify. An officer 
named Hamid et Tusi one day incurred the anger of 
the Caliph, who immediately ordered the sword and 
beheading tray to be brought. Hamid began to 
weep, and Alraschid asked him "what he was 
weeping " for. " I am not afraid of death," said he, 
" for that is the common lot ; but I am distressed 
at being obliged to leave the world while the Com- 
mander of the Faithful is angry with me." Haroun 
laughed, and spared his life. 



152 Haroun Alrasckici. 

El Asmai tells us that Haroun Alraschid once 
praised a song of Ishak's, and ordered a sum of 
money to be given him at the same time. The 
singer said, '* O Commander of the Faithful ! your 
words of praise are more eloquent than my song ; 
why, then, shall I take the reward ?" For this com- 
pliment the Caliph made him an additional present ; 
and El Asmai writes — " Then I knew that Ishak was 
more clever at money-hunting than even I myself 
was ! " 

An anecdote, characteristic of the time, and 
affording a hint as to the manner in which Haroun 
Alraschid amassed his enormous wealth, is the 
following. Sufyan ibn Oyainah, the chief juris- 
consult of the city, and a well known authority for 
the "Traditions," once came into the Caliph's 
presence in company with a certain ascetic, named 
El Fadhail. When they entered the apartment, the 
latter asked which was the Caliph, and on his being 
pointed out to him, addressed him thus — " O thou 
with the handsome face ! art thou he whose hand 
governs this people, and who has taken such a 
responsibility on his shoulders ? Truly thou hast 
taken on thyself a heavy burden." On hearing this, 
Alraschid shed tears, and ordered a purse of money 
to be given to each. El Fadhail refused to accept 
the gift, although the monarch urged that if he did 
not require it for himself he might expend it in 



The Traditions. 1 5 3 



charity. When reproached by the Cadi for his 
refusal, he seized his companion by the beard, and 
said — " How can you, the chief jurisconsult of the 
city, make so great a blunder ? Had these people 
(the Caliph and his officers) gained the money 
lawfully, it would have been lawful for me to accept 
it." The " Traditions " alluded to are the Hadith, or 
sayings attributed to Mohammed, which form, as the 
Talmud does to the Pentateuch, a sort of appendix 
to the Koran, and supply a code of laws by which 
almost every act of life is regulated. But a hadtth 
has no authority unless it can be traced directly to 
Mohammed through various trustworthy persons, and 
to ^\.Y^ it the proper sanction the name of each of the 
narrators must be mentioned. Thus, if a scrupulous 
Moslem asks a traditionist whether it be lawful to kill 
a wasp while he is on a pilgrimage, at which time he 
is forbidden to kill any living thing except the animal 
to be sacrificed at Mecca, the answer will be some- 
thing like this — " I have heard from the Rev. Dr. Z. 
that the Rev. Dr. Y. told him that he heard from X., 
who had it from W.," and so on through the alphabet 
till we come to Ali, Mohammed's cousin, " that he 
heard the Prophet say that if the beast stung him he 
would smash it with his miszvdk, or toothstick, which 
the Prophet was very fond of using, and that, there- 
fore, it must be lawful to kill the wasp." One story 
current about these folk is that a traditionist and a 



154 Haroun Ah^aschid. 

Christian were in a sailing boat together, and the 
Christian, not feehng well, produced a bottle of wine, 
and, pouring out a glass, handed it to his Moham- 
medan companion before drinking himself. The tradi- 
tionist drank it up without reflecting, and asked, 
smacking his lips, what it was. " A glass of wine," 
innocently replied the Christian ; whereupon the 
Moslem made a face — Moslems never drink wine, 
as everybody knows, since it is forbidden by their 
law — and asked him if he was sure it was really wine. 
" Quite," said the other. " I had it from a Jew wine 
merchant; my servant bought it for me." "What 
a credulous fool you are," replied the Doctor; "we 
traditionists have great discussions about the authority 
of even such persons as Sufyan ibn Oyainah and 
Yezid ibn Harun, and am I going to believe a 
Christian on the authority of a slave who had it 
from a Jew 1 Give me another glass ! " 

I may add that this system of tracing a legend to 
its original narrator is extended to secular history 
by the Arab writers ; thus the story of the quarrel 
between the Caliph's half-brother and the singer 
Ishak, related further on, is told by the author of 
the Kitdb el Aghdni (a well-known work on poets 
and singers), who had it direct from one Mohammed, 
who heard it from his father Ahmed, who had it from 
his father Ishmael, who had it from his brother, the 
very Ishak who is the hero of the story. Nearly 



The Chief Cadi. 155 

every one of the anecdotes which are embodied in 
this chapter are thus vouched for, and may therefore 
be taken as at any rate contemporary current stories; 
while the distinctive characteristics of the various 
personages concerned are so easily recognised in the 
different stories from different sources, that their 
truth and genuineness are apparent. 

These gentry knew well how to turn their know- 
ledge to account by making their decisions suit the 
wishes of their royal or noble patrons. The chief 
Cadi, Abu Yusuf, owed his introduction to Haroun 
Alraschid and his subsequent eminence to this com- 
plaisancy. He had, by an ingenious application of 
the law, relieved an officer of the Court from the con- 
sequences of a perjury he had unwittingly committed, 
and the latter, finding the Caliph himself one day in 
a state of mental perturbation, recommended the 
learned Sheikh as an infallible physician in cases of 
conscience, and Abu Yusuf was accordingly sent for. 
While passing between the two rows of buildings 
which formed the Imperial apartments, he noticed a 
youth of distinguished appearance at one of the 
windows, who, on catching his eye, made signals of 
distress to him, and appeared to implore his help. 
On being ushered into the Caliph's presence, the 
latter abruptly asked him whether an Imam — that is, 
a spiritual leader — was bound to punish anyone whom 
he had himself detected in flagi^ante delicto with the 



156 Haroun Alraschid. 

flogging prescribed by law as a punishment for 
certain crimes. Abu Yusuf, shrewdly conjecturing 
that the young man whom he had seen might be 
connected with the Caliph's family and with the 
question submitted to him, promptly answered " No ;" 
whereupon Haroun threw himself on the ground and 
returned thanks to Allah. " But on what authority," 
demanded he, " is your decision based ? " " Because 
we are told to reject the application of penalties in 
cases of doubt," was the reply. " How can one doubt 
what one has seen with one's own eyes ? " asked 
Alraschid. " Seeing," said Abu Yiisuf, " is not better 
than knowing ; and even knowing of a crime is not 
of itself sufficient to authorise punishment without 
the testimony of witnesses, which the law demands ; 
besides, no one is allowed to do justice to himself." 
The Caliph's conscience was quieted, and a handsome 
sum of money from both the monarch and his son — 
the young m.an who had caught the Cadi's eye — 
rewarded Abu Yusuf for his courtier-like interpre- 
tation of the traditions. 

On another occasion, Haroun was, to his great joy, 
assured on clerical authority that he was certain of 
entering Paradise, because he had once in his youth 
resisted a strong temptation to do wrong ; for does 
not the Koran say, " But as for him who feared the 
station of his Lord, and prohibited his soul from 
lust, verilv Paradise is his resort ! " 



Abu Ytisuf, the Cadi. 157 

Abu Yiisuf kept up his reputation, and his legal 
knowledge stood the Caliph often in good stead. 
One day Haroun sent for him to decide between 
himself and his kinsman, Isa 'bn Jaafer. The latter 
had a slave girl whom the Caliph admired, and 
begged for as a present. Isa refused, and the Caliph 
swore that unless he gave up the girl he would put 
him to death. The poor gentleman explained that 
he had already registered a solemn oath, that if he 
either gave the girl away, or sold her, he would 
divorce his wife, emancipate his slaves, and give all 
he possessed to the poor. This was the dilemma 
which Abu Yusuf was called in to deal with, and he 
advised Isa to give his Sovereign half the girl and 
sell him the other half, so that the letter, at least, of 
his oath might be preserved ! 

A somewhat similar story is told of Jaafer the 
Barmecide and the Caliph, the same Abu Yusuf 
intervening. One night the two were drinking 
together, when Haroun said — " I hear that you have 
bought a certain slave girl whom I have for a long 
time been desirous of obtaining ; sell her to me." " I 
cannot sell her," said Jaafer. " Then give her to me." 
" Nor will I give her away," said the other. " May 
Zobeideh be irrevocably divorced from me if you 
shall not either give or sell her to me," cried 
Alraschid in a rage. The words were scarcely spoken, 
before their full import dawned on the minds of the 



158 Hai^oun Alraschid. 



Caliph and Jaafer, and at once sobered them. " This 
is a matter," said Haroun, "which none but Abu 
Yusuf can decide," and at once sent for him. The 
Cadi, rightly conjecturing that nothing but a very 
important matter would have induced the Caliph to 
send for him in the middle of the night, got up 
hastily, mounted his mule, and told his servant to 
bring the nosebag and a few oats with him, as he 
might be detained. When he appeared, the Caliph 
rose to greet him, and having made him sit down on 
the sofa with him, and explained the difficulty he and 
Jaafer were in, the Cadi proposed the same way out 
of it as that given in the last account ; but Haroun 
was not yet satisfied. He wished to have possession 
of the girl at once, without waiting for the completion 
of the ceremonies necessary for the expiation of their 
oaths. "Nothing is simpler," replied Abu Yusuf. 
" Let me marry her to one of your slaves, and make 
him divorce her the moment afterwards, then she will 
be lawful for you." ^ So a slave was brought in, the 
girl was then and there married to him, and he was 
bidden to divorce her. This, however, he stoutly 
refused to do, although tempted with a large bribe, 



^ In certain cases — where a man and woman are forbidden to marry — 
as, for instance, a husband who has divorced his wife three times, and 
wishes to re-marry her — the prohibition can only be removed by the 
woman marrying some one else, and then procuring a divorce from him. 
The husband's word is sufficient for a divorce. 



FIoiv Governors were appointed. 159 

thus making matters worse than before, and driving 
the Cahph almost frantic with rage. But the courtier 
Cadi had a legal remedy for the new difficulty, and he 
caused the husband to be made over as a slave to his 
own wife, after which he pronounced a formal decision 
annulling the marriage, on the ground that the slave 
had become her property. The Caliph and Jaafer 
were both so delighted with this result, that they sent 
him home with the nosebag of his mule filled with 
gold. I cannot resist quoting the comment of the 
historian upon this incident. " Observe, oh learned 
reader, this occurrence, for it contains several 
beautiful points : firstly, the complaisance of Jaafer 
towards Alraschid, and secondly, Alraschid's clemency 
and generosity, and thirdly, the great knowledge of 
the Cadi ; so may Allah have mercy on all their 
souls ! But as to the question of the expiation of the 
oaths, it is hardly sanctioned by our own sect, and Abu 
Yusuf only treated it in accordance with the laws of 
his own sect. But Allah knows best which is right!" 
The following story will give some idea of the way 
in which the governors of provinces were appointed 
by Alraschid, Isma'il ibn Salih, brother of the Abd 
el Melik who, as I have already said, had fallen 
under the Caliph's displeasure, was one day sent for 
by the latter, who desired to see him. Isma'il had 
promised his brother not to go anywhere during his 
imprisonment, but was induced by El Fadhl to go, on 



i6o Haroiin Alraschid. 

the pretence that Haroun was unwell. Before setting- 
out, however, Abd el Melik said to his brother, "They 
only want you to drink with them and sing to them, 
and if you do so, you are no brother of mine." 
Haroun received him very graciously, and invited 
him to dine with him, after which the court physician 
recommended his royal master to drink some wine. 
" By Allah !" said the Caliph, " I will not drink unless 
Isma'il drinks with me." " But, my lord," said 
Isma'il, " I have sworn not to do anything of the 
sort." The Caliph would take no refusal, and they 
drank three glasses apiece. A curtain was then 
drawn aside, and some singing and dancing girls 
entered and performed, until Isma'il began to grow 
merry in spite of himself. Now Alraschid had in his 
hand a rosary of precious stones, worth an incalcul^ 
able sum of money, and taking a lute from the hand 
of one of the damsels, he threw the rosary over it, 
and placing both in Ismail's lap, said — " Come, sing 
us something, and expiate your oath out of the value 
of this rosary." Thereupon Isma'il burst out into the 
following verse — ■ 

*' My hand to sin I never taught, 
My feet to faults have never led. 
Nor eye nor ear have ever brought 
A sinful thought into my head ; 
And if I now my fate deplore, 
'Tis but the fate of folks before !" 



Ibrahim, the Court Singer, i6i 

The Caliph, dehghted, called for a lance, and, 
iffixing the banner of Egypt to it, handed it then 
ind there to Isma'il — he, by this act, appointing him 
governor of the province. " I ruled it," says Isma'il, 
' for two years, and I loaded it with justice, and came 
away with five hundred thousand dinars (iJ"2 50,000) in 
my pocket /" 

Ibrahim el Mosili relates that he went out one day 
to take the air, and get rid of the effects of a too 
iieavy drinking bout, when he perceived a smell of 
cooking that aroused his appetite. Having ordered 
his servant to find out from which house the odour 
proceeded, he presented himself at the door, and 
requested the girl who opened it to allow him to 
partake of the meal that was being prepared. The 
girl went to her mistress, and at once returned with 
permission for them to enter. She then tasted the 
contents of a pot that was upon the fire, and set a 
dish of it before the visitors. Ibrahim found it very 
savoury, ate heartily, and was about to take his 
departure, when the lady of the house sent word out 
to say that she regretted the absence of her husband, 
who would, she was sure, have been pleased to 
entertain them further, and to drink with them. As 
he was leaving, he passed a man riding upon an ass, 
who turned out to be the master himself. He, havingr 
learnt from the girl what had happened, rode after 
Ibrahfm and insisted on bringing him back to the 



1 62 Haroun Ahaschid. 

house, where, taking him into the best apartment, he 
set before his guest an elegant dessert and some ex- 
cellent wine, and the two kept up the carousal until 
the evening. The next day Ibrahim was told that the 
Caliph had over and over again sent for him during 
his absence, so he hurried to the palace, and by way 
of making his excuses told his adventures, and waxed 
eloquent upon the savoury nature of the stew he had 
tasted. The Caliph was amused, and said, " Did he 
not ask you who you were t " " No," replied Isma'il, 
*'we had plenty else to do." Haroun wished to taste 
the dish for himself, and ordered Isma'il to procure 
an invitation for them both without acquainting their 
host with their names and rank. This was easily 
arranged for the next night, Isma'il telling the hos- 
pitable stranger that his friend was deeply in debt, 
and dared not show himself by day for fear of his 
creditors ! So the Caliph and his companion mounted 
two asses and rode to the house, where they were 
cordially received and entertained. The Caliph de- 
clared he had never tasted anything like the stew, 
was charmed with all he saw and heard, and asked 
his host about his circumstances. " My father," said 
he, " left me a large property, and I dissipated the 
greater part of it ; but I retrenched in time, and, thank 
Allah, now I want for nothing." Presently the 
fumes of the wine and the songs of the singing girls 
who were present so expanded the Caliph's heart that 



The Mail with the Stew. 163 

lie told Ibrahim to take their host aside and tell him 
who he was. So Ibrahim said, " Do you know who 
your guest is ? " " No," said he. " Why, he is the 
Commander of the Faithful himself." The man, on 
hearing this, laughed till he rolled over on his back, 
and kept calling out, "O, what a wonderfully good 
thing! O, you wag!" At this the Caliph laughed 
immoderately too, and the man called out to his wife, 
" What think you of our guests } They have got 
drunk, and repay my hospitality by making fun of me, 
ind one of them declares he is the Prince of the 
l^aithful;" then, offering a glass with mock humility 
.0 Alraschid, he said, "Drink, Commander of the 
Faithful," and Haroun laughed the more. " But/' 
-aid Ibrahim, "it is really the Commander of the 
Faithful !" " Pray stop your drunken jokes," said the 
other; "you have only drunk a couple of glasses, 
and have turned this fellow into the Commander of 
the Faithful ; in another half-an-hour you will make 
him out to be the Prophet himself! " When daylight 
began to appear, the party broke up. Ibrahim, failing 
lo convince his host of the truth of his communi- 
cation, told him to ask his neighbours in the morning 
after El MaHk (the King), and after Ibrahim el 
losili, and when asked his name, to reply that he 
/as "the man with the stew." In the morning his 
1 neighbours said to him, "What a noisy party you had 
\ 1st night ; who were your two guests 1 " When he 



i6| Haroun Alraschid. 

had told them all, one of the neighbours said, " Tell 
me what they were like," and on hearing the descrip- 
tion, declared his conviction that it was really the 
Caliph. So the man went off to the house of Ibrahim 
el Mosili, and sent word in that " the man with the 
stew" had called. Ibrahim at once admitted him, 
rode with him to the palace, and presented him to 
Alraschid, who insisted on his repeating his sarcastic 
observations of the previous night, which he did, to 
Haroun's great delight. The Caliph ordered an im- 
mense sum of money to be given to him, and bade 
him tell him the receipt for the celebrated stew". 
'* No, Commander of the Faithful," said he ; " if I 
were to give away a thing that has proved so valuable 
to me, I should have no advantage left in it. I shall 
be happy to cook it for the Commander of the 
Faithful whenever he pleases." Haroun was content 
with the reply, and the lucky host was ever after- 
wards known as " the man with the stew. " 

Haroun Alraschid did not always meet with a 
courteous reception. Once he was performing the 
ceremonies of the Hajj or pilgrimage at Mecca, and 
was preparing to make the Tawaf, or circuit of the 
Ka'abeh, the holy shrine there, as prescribed by law, 
when, to his amazement, an Arab of the desert ran 
before him, and commenced to make the circuit 
first. At a hint from their master, the chamber- 
lains stopped the audacious Bedawi, who, however, 



Alraschid and the Arab. 165 

promptly answered, "God made Imam (Head of the 
]:^'aith) and subject equal in this place when He said, 
* The Sacred Mosque, which we have made for all 
inen alike, the dweller therein and the stranger, and 
he who desires profanation therein with injustice, 
we will make him taste grievous woe ' " {Koran xxii. 
2-^. When Alraschid heard this, he ordered the 
chamberlains to let him go on unmolested. The 
same thing took place when the Caliph wished to 
kiss the celebrated black stone, and to perform his 
prayers at the station of Abraham — z>., the stone 
on which the patriarch stood when rebuilding the 
Ka'abeh. After the ceremonies were complete, 
liaroun sent an officer to summon the Arab before 
i;im. " I do not want him," said the fellow ; " if he 
v;ants me, let him come to me." So the Caliph went 
to him, and, saluting him, said, " I will sit down here, 
with your permission." " The house is not mine," 
was the reply; "and the sanctuary is not my sanc- 
tuary. We are all equal here. If you like, sit down ; 
nd if not, be off!" Then Haroun sat down, and 
aid, " O Arab ! I should like to ask you about your 
religious duties : for if you are right in that, you will 
be right in other matters ; but if you fail in that, you 
will fail in other things." The Arab said, " Do you 
isk the question to learn yourself or to confound me !" 
Alraschid wondered at his ready answer, and said, 
' Nay, it is to learn." " Then," said the Arab, " sit in 



1 66 Haroim Alrasc/uci. 

the position fitting for a pupil who asks his teacher." 
Haroun complied, and sat down upon his heels, with 
his knees on the ground. " Now," said the other, 
" ask what you like." " I wish you to tell me," said 
the Caliph, " what duty God has imposed upon you." 
" Do you wish me to tell you of one duty that He 
has imposed, or of five, or of seventeen, or of thirty- 
four, or of eighty-five, or one for the whole length 
of my life.''" Haroun laughed mockingly, and 
said, " I ask you about your duties, and you give 
me an account." Said the other, " O Haroun ! 
if religion did not involve an account, God would 
not call men to account on the Day of Judgment, 
'when no soul shall be wronged so much as the 
weight of a grain of mustard seed, for We are 
accountants enough ! ' " {Koran xxi. 48). The Caliph 
flushed up with fury when he heard himself addressed 
as simple Haroun, and not as Commander of the 
Faithful ; he, however, restrained himself, out of 
respect for the sanctity of the place in which they 
were. " Explain yourself," said he, "or I will have 
your head cut off." " I beseech your Majesty," inter- 
posed the chamberlain, "pardon him, and make a 
gift of his life to this holy place." But the Arab 
only laughed a scornful laugh, and said, " I know 
not which of you two is the greater fool, he who 
would remit a doom which is due, or he who would 
hasten a doom, that is not due as yet ! As for your 



A Iras chid and the Arab. 167 

question," he continued, " concerning my duties, God 
has imposed upon me many of them. When I spoke 
to you of one duty, I meant the religion of Islam ; 
when I spoke of five, I meant the five daily prayers ; 
when I spoke of seventeen, I meant the seventeen 
prostrations ; when I spoke of the thirty-four, I meant 
the thirty-four adorations ; when I spoke of the 
eighty-five, I meant the eighty-five utterances of the 
formula, 'God is great!' when I spoke of one that 
lasts my whole life long, I meant the duty of the 
pilgrimage to Mecca." 

The Arab then retorted by asking a difficult 
question of the Caliph, which he could not answer, 
and which turned out to be a kind of legal enigma 
relating to the laws of divorce. Alraschid, delighted 
at his ingenuity and piety, ordered ten thousand 
dirhems to be given to him ; which, however, he 
refused to accept. Then said Haroun, " Shall I 
provide for you.?" "He who provides for you will 
provide for me," was the answer. " Are you in debt V 
asked Alraschid. "No, thank God!" rephed the 
Arab, who seemed resolved on thwarting the Caliph. 

At the conclusion of the interview, Alraschid dis- 
covered that the outspoken Sheikh was no other 
than a direct lineal descendant of AH ibn Abi Talib, 
who, as the representative of the ousted dynasty of 
the Alides, was no doubt glad enough to avail himself 
of the privileges of the sacred month and sacred 



1 68 ■ Haroun Alraschid. 

place to displa) nis learning and independence, and 
humble the pride of the hated descendant of Abbas. 

The Ibrahim el Mosili, mentioned in some of the 
foregoing stories, was one of the most celebrated 
musicians of the time, and a great favourite at the 
cou^t. His music was sometimes inspired in an odd 
wayj^if we are to believe his own account of it. Once 
he asked Alraschid for permission to spend the day 
at home with his family, and having received permis- 
sion, and reached his house, he gave strict orders that 
no one was to be admitted on any pretext whatever. 
What was his surprise, on taking his place amongst 
the members of his harem, to find himself in the 
presence of a sheikh of imposing appearance, and 
of such persuasive powers of speech, that Ibrah/m, in 
spite of himself, was constrained to welcome him, 
instead of resenting his intrusion. The two passed 
the day together in eating, drinking, and music, the 
unknown singing three airs which absolutely charmed 
his host, after which he disappeared in as mysterious 
a manner as he had entered. Ibrahim rushed out 
with a drawn sword, and threatened the porters with 
death if they did not tell how the Arab had entered, 
and where he was gone. They declared that-no one 
had passed through the doors, when suddenly, in the 
midst of the disturbance, the voice of the uncanny 
visitant was heard telling Ibrahim not to trouble 
himself, for it was Abu Murrah — the Evil One 



Harouii and his Desert Bride. 169 

himself — who had kept him compan ' on his hoHday. 
Ibrahim remembered the airs, and sang them to the 
Caliph, who was much delighted, both with the music 
and the incident. Probably the ladies of the harem 
could have given a different account of the handsome 
and accomplished sheikh, had they been so disposed. 

One day the Caliph, while in Jaafer's company, 
came across a company of Arab maidens, one of 
whom, the daughter of a chief, so charmed him with 
her wit, eloquence, and power of improvising poetry, 
that he proposed for her to her father, and married 
her. After some time her father died, and Haroun, 
who was excessively attached to her, went himself to 
break the sad news. No sooner did she see him, 
with evident signs of trouble upon his face, than she 
rushed into her private apartment, and changed her 
gorgeous attire for a mourning garment, and cried 
out — -^ My father is dead !" The Caliph came in 
to console .her, and as soon as the first paroxysm 
of her grief was over, asked her how she had learnt of 
her father's death. " From your face, Commander of 
the Faithful," said she. '' Since I have been with you, 
I have never seen you like that before ; and I had no 
one to fear for but my father, so long as I knew you 
were alive." A short time after, she followed her 
father to the grave. 

Maan ibn Zdidah, who was one of the Caliph's 
officers, had continued to incur his Sovereign's 



I/O Haroun Alraschid, 

displeasure, although he was still permitted to 
continue in attendance on him. Seeing that he 
walked slowly, and with difficulty, Haroun said, 
"You have grown old, Maan." "Yes, sire," was 
the reply, " in your service." " But you have still 
some energy left," said Haroun. " It is at your 
service, sire," answered the old man. "You are a 
bold fellow," said the Caliph. " Yes, in withstanding 
your enemies, sire." These answers brought him 
again into favour, and procured for him the governor- 
ship of the province of Basra. 

One night Haroun was very sleepless, so he sent 
for Jaafer the Barmecide, and said, "I desire you to 
dispel the sadness and weariness which I feel. Allah 
has created many folks capable of cheering the sad — 
maybe you are one of them." Said Jaafer — " Let us 
come out upon the roof of the palace, and watch the 
myriads of stars, how complicated and how lofty they 
are ; the moon rising like the face of one we love, O 
Commander of the Faithful!" "No," said the 
Caliph, "I have no mind for that." "Then," said 
Jaafer, " open the palace window that looks over the 
garden, and see the beautiful trees, and listen to the 
songs of the birds, and the murmuring of the waters, 
and smell the sweet odours of the flowers, and hearken 
to the water-wheel humming, with a moan like that of 
a lover who has lost his love ; or sleep, O Commander 
of the Faithful, until the dawn arise." " Nay," said 



Abu Miriam, of Medina. 171 

the Caliph, " I have no mind for that." " Then," said 
Jaafer, "open the window which looks over the 
Tigris, and look at the ships, and at the sailors 
singing-, sailing, working, and amusing themselves." 
" Nay," said Alraschid, " I have no mind for that." 
'Then," said Jaafer, "O Commander of the Faithful i 
rise, and let us go down to the stables, and look at 
your Arab horses — beautiful creatures of all colours. 
There are chargers black as the night, when it is at its 
darkest. There are steeds — grey, and chestnut, and 
dun, and bay, and white, and cream-coloured, and 
pied, and other colours, that would daze one's wits !" 
" Nay," said Alraschid, " I have no mind for that." 
"Then," said Jaafer, " O Commander of the Faithful ! 
you have three hundred girls who sing and dance and 
play ; send for them all, it may be the sadness which 
is on your heart will cease." " Nay," said Alraschid, 
" I have no mind for that." " Then," said Jaafer, 
" cut off your servant Jaafer's head, for he can't soothe 
his Sovereign's grief !" 

One of Haroun's favourite companions was Abu 
Miriam, of Medina, an incorrigible wag, and almost 
as impudent as Abu Nawwas himself. One morning 
early, the Caliph came into the room where Abu 
Miriam was asleep, and, puUing the blanket from his 
face, said, " How are you this morning t " " It isn't 
morning yet," was the reply; "go about your busi- 
ness." "Arise," said Haroun, solemnly, "and say the 



1^2 Haroun A Iras chid. 

prayers of dawn." " This is the time prescribed by 
Abu Jerud," said the other; " I belong to Abu Yusufs 
sect." So the Caliph proceeded to say his prayers 
by himself, until, when he came to a passage from the 
Koran (xxxvi. 21), "What ails me that I should not 
worship Him who created me ? " Abu Miriam ob- 
served, " I am sure I don't know ! " The Caliph, 
much incensed, reproached him for interrupting his 
prayers. " I did not mean to interrupt you," said 
he ; '' but I was shocked to hear you making such a 
remark ; " on which Haroun could not help laughing 
again, but warned him to avoid making fun of reli- 
gious subjects in future. 

One day Haroun Alraschid ordered an equerry of 
his, named El Hakam, to accompany him the following 
morning on a hunting expedition. El Hakam went 
home to his wife and said, " The Caliph has ordered 
me to go hunting with him, but I am sure I shall 
never be able to endure it, for I am, as you know, 
accustomed to breakfast early, while the Caliph never 
takes a meal until nearly midday ; I shall die of 
hunger! By Allah, I won't go!" "Nay," said 
his wife, "Allah forbid! it is impossible for you to 
disobey orders." " But what am I to do } " said he 
Said his wife, "You can take a packet of heldweh'^ 
with you, and put it in your turban, to eat in the 
meantime, and when breakfast-time comes, you car 

^ A sweetmeat made of honey and sesame meal. 



El Hakam. 173 



make a good meal with the Caliph." The next 
morning El Hakam bought himself a paper packet 
of heldzveh, and placed it in the folds of his turban, 
and, mounting his ass, joined Alraschid's cavalcade. 
Now it so happened that the Caliph noticed the 
paper packet showing through the muslin folds of 
his equerry's turban, and calling Jaafer aside, he said, 
•' Do you see that paper of heldweli in El Hakam's 
turban t I will tease him and prevent him from eating 
it." As they were going along the road, the Caliph 
made as though he saw some game, and rode ahead, 
whereupon El Hakam seized the opportunity to take 
the sweetmeat from his turban and to put a piece in 
his mouth. No sooner had he done so than the 
Caliph wheeled sharply round, and cried, "El Hakam!" 
" Here, your Majesty !" said he, hastily snatching the 
piece of heldweh out of his mouth and throwing it 
away. " This mule," said Alraschid, " does not 
please me to-day ; I think there is something the 
matter with it." " Perhaps the groom has over-fed 
it," suggested El Hakam. After a short time the 
Caliph again rode on, and El Hakam, who was now 
famishing, again furtively crammed a morsel into his 
mouth, when the voice of the Commander of the 
Faithful suddenly shouting his name compelled him 
to throw it away and answer. " I cannot think what 
has happened to this mule to-day," said Haroun ; 
**she does not go at all to my liking." "To-morrow," 



1/4 Haroun Ali^aschid. 

said El Hakam, " I will have her seen to by thr 
veterinary doctor." Then they went on a little, EI 
Hakam grumbling to himself, and caUing down al' 
sorts of imprecations upon the mule and her master 
too. He had scarcely found an opportunity of 
slipping another piece of the heldweh into his mouth, 
when the Caliph turned round and called him again 
*'Ah!" muttered the unfortunate equerry, disposing 
of his morsel, " what a black day is this for me ! — 
always Hakam, Hakam, Hakam ! — what madness 
has got hold of you ?" " See here," said Haroun, " 1 
think this mule has been purposely lamed ; don't yof 
see how she halts.?" "To-morrow, your Majesty,' 
was the reply, " the farrier shall change her shoes, 
and then she will get all right, if it please Allah !" 

As they were travelling along the road, they met a 
caravan of merchants coming from Persia, one ol 
whom, stepping forward, prostrated himself, and 
kissed the ground before the Caliph, offering him at 
the same time some costly presents. Among the 
latter was a young Persian slave girl of exquisite 
beauty, " with undulating form, full bosom, slender 
waist, eyes like those of a gazelle, and a mouth like 
Solomon's ring." Alraschid, ever susceptible to female 
charms, gave the merchant a princely gift of money, 
and, turning to El Hakam, bade him ride back at 
once to the city v/ith the damsel, and prepare the 
palace for his reception, and order a suitable banquet 



Anecdote of El Hakam. 175 

to be got ready. El Hakam did as he was bidden, and 
the CaHph himself returned shortly afterwards, when, 
dismissing his attendants, he entered the banqueting 
apartment with the fair Persian, having first com- 
manded El Hakam to stand sentry at the door, and 
give him immediate notice in case the Princess 
Zobeideh should appear upon the scene. El Hakam 
replied, " I hear and obey Allah and the Commander 
of the Faithful," and took his stand outside the door. 

Scarcely was the repast over and the wine-cups filled, 
when a gentle tap was heard at the door, and Haroun, 
feehng sure that the Princess had arrived, hastily 
removed the bottle and glasses, and concealed the 
dam.sel in a cupboard. Opening the door, he found 
El Hakam standing there, and asked him, " Has the 
Princess Zobeideh come.''" "No, O Commander of 
the Faithful!" said El Hakam; "but I knew how 
anxious you were about that mule, so I asked the 
groom, and I found that he had in fact over-fed her ; 
but to-morrow I will have her bled, and I have no 
doubt but that she will soon get better." " Never 
mind the mule," exclaimed the Caliph, angrily; "hold 
your tongue, and watch by the door ; and if you see 
the Lady Zobeideh coming, let me know at once," 

They had just comfortably settled down again 
when another knock was heard, and, hastily con- 
cealing his fair visitor and the wine, Haroun opened 
the door, and enquired of El Hakam if the Princess 



1/6 Haroun Alraschid, 

was really coming. " No, O Commander of th 
Faithful!" said. El Hakam ; "but knowing- your 
anxiety about the mule, I enquired of the veterinary 
doctor, and he tells me that nothing ails her, but that 
she is a little restive from want of exercise." " May 
Allah never bless you or the mule either," shouted 
Alraschid. " Did I not tell you not to plague me with 
such nonsense ) Keep at your post, and take care 
that the Lady Zobeideh does not surprise us ; for if 
she does, I will make this one of the most unlucky 
days of your life!" "Upon my head and eyes!' 
replied the equerry. Presently the Caliph heard a^ 
stamping upon the roof of the apartment where Ei 
Hakam had gone to watch, and, taking his precau 
tions as before, went out, fully expecting this time to 
meet the Princess herself He found, however, only 
El Hakam, who said, " I noticed that mule, sire 
stamping just as I am stamping now, and I feared it 
might be suffering from a colic from the over-feeding, 

and I feel very anxious about it " " Begone out 

of my sight !" said the Caliph, with a torrent of 
imprecations ; "and never let me see your face again. 
If I do, I will have you hanged !" El Hakam went 
away crestfallen at the result of his somewhat 
dangerous jest. His wife, however, consoled him, 
and waited upon the Lady Zobeideh herself to beg 
for her intercession. The Caliph, not knowing how 
much the Princess might get to know if the matter 



The Physician and the Fish. 177 

went further, thought it best to accede to her request, 
and pardoned El Hakam. 

While staying at Hira, Aun el Ibddi, governor of 
that place, brought the Caliph a dish containing a 
very fine fat fish, served up with a dainty sauce, 
and set it before him. The latter was about to 
taste it, when the court physician, Gabriel ibn 
Bakhtishou, forbade his master to touch it, and made 
signs to the host to put it aside for himself. The 
movement did not escape Haroun's notice ; and when 
the physician had left, he sent an attendant after him, 
with orders to surprise him in his apartments, and to 
report on what he was doing. Gabriel had no doubt 
anticipated this manoeuvre, for the spy found him in 
Aun's private apartments, sitting down to his own 
dinner with the identical fish before him. Calling for 
three bowls, he placed a piece of the fish in each ; he 
then poured into one of them a glass of wine, and 
said, "This is Gabriel's food;" into the next he 
poured iced water, and said, " This is the food of the 
Commander of the Faithful ; may Allah glorify him!" 
with the third portion of the fish he placed several 
pieces of meat of different kinds, a sweetmeat, some 
piquant sauces, vegetables, and various other viands — 
about one or two mouthfuls of each — and poured 
iced water over the whole, saying, " This is the food 
of the Commander of the Faithful, if he takes any- 
thing besides the fish." Then he gave the three 



178 Haroun Alraschid. 

bowls to his host, and bade him keep them until 1 
should ask for him, after which he sat down ai: 
made a hearty meal of the rest of the fisi 
washing it down with copious draughts of win 
When the Caliph awoke from his siesta^ he summon- 
the spy, and asked if Gabriel had or had not eaten 
the fish? On learning the facts, he ordered 1- 
attendants to bring him the three bowls. In the fii 
which Gabriel had called his own, and over which -^ 
had poured pure wine, the fish was found to be v^ • 
digested, and the whole reduced to a liquid state. ^ 
the second, the Caliph's bowl, over which the i< 
water had been poured, the fish was found to 
swelled out to twice its size; while the third be 
containing the mixed viands, had already becc 
corrupted. Gabriel's little plan succeeded, for ':} 
Caliph sent him a magnificent present, and trea 
him ever after with increased confidence and affect' 
Alraschid was too much addicted to the pleasi 
of the table, and Gabriel tells us that once, as 
gormandising more than usual, he was seized wit 
fit of so serious a nature that all who were pre* 
thought that he had breathed his last, and the 
young princes, Emin and Mamun, were sent 
The physician, detecting some slight signs of 
mation, ordered him to be bled ; but Kauther, 
personal attendant of Emin, the then heir-appai 
and who hoped to retain his influence with the 



The Caliph and his Brother. 

h, strongly opposed the measure, and declared 

- )uld not consent to trying to bleed a dead man. 

, however, interfered, and the Caliph was 

' i,;ht round again. 

' • ahim ibn el Mehdi, a brother of the Caliph's, 

• '.•:- :s the following anecdote: — " Haroun Alraschid 
on\ visited me while he was staying at Rakka. It 

• lis custom at meals to eat the hot dishes before 
:old, and on one occasion when the latter were 
pon the table, he noticed a bowl of viands appar- 

n:.y prepared from fish. The Caliph thought the 
i ^-i^os too small, and said, * Why has your cook cut 
't up into such small fragments?' 'Commander of 
tb.e Faithful,' I replied, 'the dish is composed of 
6sbc.s' tongues.' 'There seem to be at least a 
Ired tongues in it,' said Haroun ; but my 
> mt, Murakib, declared that there were more than 
mdred and fifty. Then the Caliph demanded 
much it had cost, and on being told that a 
sand dirhems (nearly £40) had been spent upon 
I jumped up from the table, and swore that he 
d not touch another morsel until Murakib brought 
a thousand dirhems. When the money came, he 
red it to be given away in charity. ' There,' said 
I hope that will prove some compensation for 
• extravagance in expending so much upon one 
.' Then he took the dish in his hand, and turning 
)ne of his own attendants, he said, ' Take this 



Haroun Alraschid. 



outside my brother's house, and give it to the fir; 
poor person you meet' Now," continued Ibrahir. . 
" that bowl which I had bought in honour of tt 
Caliph's visit cost me two hundred and sixty dirhem 
and I gave a wink to one of my servants to go outsic 
with the Caliph's officer, and purchase the bowl bac 
from whoever might get it. Alraschid noticed an 
understood the movement, and called out, ' Pagt 
when you give the bowl to the beggar, tell him the 
the Commander of the Faithful advises him not t 
sell it for less than two hundred dirhems !' which 
says Ibrahim, " is the sum that it actually cost me." 
■ The same prince, Ibrahim, tells another story ( 
his brother Haroun : — "I was one day with the Calip 
in a boat on the way to Mosul. We had just finishe 
a game of chess when Alraschid said to me, 'Ibrahin 
which do you think is the best name in the world 
*That of the Prophet, on whom be blessing an 
peace!' said I. 'And which next.?' asked the Calip] 
'That of the Commander of the Faithful,' was m 
reply. ' And which name do you consider the moi 
unlucky?' enquired his Majesty. 'That of Ibrahiir 
said I. 'Shame on you!' he said; ' why, *it is th 
name of the Friend of Allah!'i ' Just so,' I answerec 



1 The Patriarch Abraham— in -Arabic, Ibrahim — is so calle( 
According to the story in the Koran, he was persecuted by Nimroi 
who threw him into a fiery furnace for opposing the idolatry of b 
people. The fire, however, was miraculously kept from hurting him 



k/ 



Harou7is Ascetic Son. i8i 

' and it was from the ill-luck attending his name that 
Nimrod so persecuted him.' * But Ibrahim was the 
name of the infant son of the Prophet/ objected 
Haroun. ' Yes,' I said ; ' and had he had any other 
name he might have lived.' ' How about the Imam, 
Ibrahim.'*' 'Thanks to his name,' I answered, 'Mer- 
wan el Jaadi killed him by fastening him up in a 
sack of quicklime. And I might add. Commander 
of the Faithful, the names of Ibrahim, the son of 
Walid, who was dethroned, and Ibrahim ibn Abdallah 
ibn el Hasan, the Ahde, who was killed. In short, I 
have never known anybody of the name but he was 
either condemned to death, the bastinado, or exile.' 
I had scarcely done speaking when one of the boat- 
men shouted out to a comrade, ' Here, Ibrahim !' and 
added a most opprobrious epithet. ' Did I not tell 
your Majesty,' I continued, ' that Ibrahim was the 
most unlucky of names V at which the Caliph burst 
out into a hearty laugh." 

All of Haroun's family did not participate in his 
luxury and fondness for amusement. One of his own 
sons was afflicted with melancholy, and at the age 
of sixteen adopted the habit and life of a recluse. 
Haroun reproved him for " disgracing him amongst 
kings;" and the youth replied that "his father was 
disgracing him among the saints," and with this 
retort withdrew himself from the palace, and worked 
as a daily labourer amongst the bricklayers. The 



1 82 Haroun Alraschid. 

wages he always demanded were a dirhem and i 
sixth daily, with the latter of which he support 
himself, and the former he gave away in alms. ] 
died in great penury, having confided to his emplo; 
a valuable ruby ring, which he entreated him to g 
to the Caliph, and through which his fate and ident 
were discovered. 

While at Kufa, on his return from the pilgrimi. 
to Mecca, during which he made the celebra 
arrangement concerning the accession of his tv < 
sons, Haroun Alraschid heard with some conccu'i 
that there was still living at Damascus a membe. jf 
the family of Ommaiyeh, who possessed so much, 
wealth and such influence in the city, that the Ca m- • 
was assured that he might at any moment attei 
to restore the dynasty of his house. Sending 
Menara, one of his most trusted courtiers, Har 
despatched him with a large company of horse 
and slaves, and secret instructions to arrest 
dangerous noble, and bring him back fettered wi 
thirteen days to the Caliph. He also carried a 1< 
to the Governor of Damascus, ordering hirr 
assist in the arrest, or, in case of the suspc 
individual refusing to obey the summons, to 
him and his household under the strictest surveill 
He was, moreover, ordered to take note of every 
and word of his prisoner, and to make a full and m 
report of the circumstances in which he found hi 



The Oininiade Nobleman, 183 

So fast did Menara traverse the intervening desert, 
that he arrived at Damascus on the evening of the 
seventh day, after the gates of the city were closed. 
Not wishing to arouse suspicion by knocking at the 
gate and demanding entry for so large a company as 
he had with him, and so perhaps giving the intended 
prisoner warning and time to take his precautions, 
the envoy camped for the night outside the walls. 
In the morning, Menara went straight to the house of 
the Ommiade, and found the evidences of his wealth 
and power even beyond what had been reported. 
Entering, without waiting or asking for permission, 
he found a company of young men, and, announcing 
himself as the messenger of the Caliph, demanded 
which of them was the owner of the house. They 
replied that their father was at present in the bath, 
whereupon Menara peremptorily ordered him to be 
sent for. After some time, during which Menara 
begun to get disquieted, and to fear that his prey had 
escaped him, the person in question entered, and, 
without the least embarrassment, entered into con- 
versation with the envoy, and asked him after the 
health of the Commander of the Faithful. He then 
invited Menara to sit down and breakfast with them, 
which he declined, but watched the man and his sons 
enjoying a splendid repast. " You had better join us, 
Menara," said the master of the house ; and Menara, 
enraged at being thus familiarly addressed by his 



184 Harovin Ah^aschid, 

name, for the first time observed that his servants 
and attendants had been intercepted by the retinue of 
the other, and that he himself was almost alone in 
the room with only five followers. The nonchalant 
manners of the man, and the certainty that, if it came 
to a question of arms, he could not arrest him without 
the assistance of the Governor of Damascus and his 
forces, by no means reassured the messenger. At 
length, after leisurely performing the noon- day prayer, 
the man condescended to ask Menara his business, 
when the latter at once gave him the Caliph's letter. 
The owner of the house read it, and immediately sum- 
moned all his sons and attendants round him ; and 
when Menara saw them assemble in such a crowd, 
he made sure of immediate destruction. The 
Ommiade, however, began to address them, and en- 
gaged them by a most stringent oath, that if any two 
of them met together, they should not utter a word of 
blame against anyone else, but that they should 
retire to their apartments, and remain there until they 
heard from him. " This," said he, " is the letter of the 
Commander of the Faithful, bidding me to come to 
him, and after having seen it, I will not tarry a 
moment longer ; bid my women folk behave them- 
selves while I am away. I require no one to accom- 
pany me. Now," he continued, " call for your fetters." 
The envoy did so, a^ \ the man cheerfully put out his 
arms to be bound. Menara then ordered him to be 



The Ommiade Nobleinan, 185 

placed in a litter, and set out then and there, himself 
riding by his side, so as not to lose sight of him. As 
they were going along, they passed through a beautiful 
garden, and the prisoner, who had been chatting 
pleasantly with his captor, called his attention to it, 
said it belonged to himself, and waxed eloquent on the 
subject of the rare fruits and flowers which it contained. 
The same occurred on their passing through some 
fields and farms, the prisoner always amicably dis- 
cussing their merits, until at last Menara's patience 
was exhausted, and he said, " Do you not know that 
the Commander of the Faithful is so anxious and 
annoyed on your account that he has sent for you 
from the bosom of your family, alone, and loaded with 
chains.? You don't know how it may go with you, 
and yet you seem to trouble yourself less about it 
than other people do, and keep on describing to me 
your gardens and farms. Why, you do not know 
what you have been arrested for, or what the CaHph 
means to do with you, and yet you are quite quiet and 
indifferent. I had always supposed you were a Sheikh 
possessed of good sense." Then the prisoner cried out, 
" We belong to Allah, and unto Him shall we return ! 
By Allah ! my discernment has failed me in your 
case, for I thought that you must be a person of in- 
telligence, or you would never have attained to the posi- 
tion you have with the Caliph, hereas what you are 
saying is more like the speech of the common herd ! 



1 86 Haroun Alraschid. 

As for what you tell me about the Commander of the 
Faithful and his anger, and his forcing me to appear 
at his door in this condition — I rely upon Allah, in 
whose hand is the forelock of the Commander of the 
Faithful. The Commander of the Faithful cannot 
control either profit or harm for me, save by the per- 
mission of Allah, whose name be exalted. I have 
committed no crime against the Caliph that I should 
fear to meet him. Besides, if he sees how loyal and 
true I am to him, he will esteem me ; but if Allah in 
His prescience has determined that harm shall befall 
me from him, and my doom is really nigh, and I am 
to perish by his hand, all the angels and prophets and 
all the people in earth and heaven could not ward it 
off from me. Why should I trouble myself? It is 
useless to do so about what Allah has already decided ; 
and to think the best of His decrees, and to resign 
ourselves perfectly to His will, is our bounden duty. 
I thought you knew all this ; but now that I have 
found out the extent of your understanding, I will 
not speak another word to you until His Highness 
the Caliph separates us, as please Allah he soon will." 
"After that," says Menara, "I never heard a word 
from him, except as he read the Koran, or asked for 
water, or any other necessary, until we came near 
Kufa, which we did on the thirteenth day." About 
six parasangs from the town, a guard who had been 
watching for their return met them, and hastened 



The Ommiade Nobleman, 187 

forward to take the news to the Caliph that the 
prisoner was in safe custody, and on his way. 
Towards evening they reached Kufa, and Menara 
was at once admitted to the presence of the 
Commander of the Faithful, who bade him narrate 
every detail of what he had seen and heard. When 
he told him of the Ommiade's reception of him, and 
of his breakfasting in so unconcerned a manner, the 
veins on Haroun's face swelled with anger ; when he 
related how he had engaged his relations and servants 
not to harbour a single thought of revenge for the 
treatment he had received, and how he had volun- 
tarily submitted to the fetters, the Caliph's features 
assumed a softer expression ; but when Menara 
repeated the rebuke which the prisoner had addressed 
to him, Alraschid said, " By Allah ! the accusations 
against him are false; he is a true and loyal man!" 
and ordered him to be relieved of his fetters, and 
brought before him. When the Ommiade entered 
the room, the Caliph ordered him to sit down, entered 
into familiar conversation with him, and asked him if 
he had any request to make. "None," was the 
politic reply, "except to return to my family; for, 
thanks to the justice of the Commander of the 
Faithful and his officers, neither I nor the people 
of the city where I live want for anything." 
Haroun sent him back to Damascus loaded with 
honours, and ordered Menara to escort him on 



1 88 Harottn A Iras chid. 

his way, and to attend upon him with the greatest 
deference. 

Life and liberty were by no means secure at the 
Court of Bagdad, and the favourite of one day was 
often disgraced and thrown into a dungeon on the 
next. 

The poet, Abu 'Atahiyeh, probably before he 
became blind, was desperately enamoured of a girl 
named Otbah, a slave of Kheizaran, Haroun's mother. 
The girl complained to her mistress that the poet 
was disgracing her, by composing verses about her, 
and suggesting that she had given him encourage- 
ment. The princess told the Caliph Mehdi, and Abu 
'Atahiyeh received a severe beating for his pains. 
When Haroun Alraschid ascended the throne, the 
poet again began his attentions to Otbah, and 
composed a song in her honour, one verse of which — 

" The Caliph's fawn has hunted me, 
And how shall I again get free ? " — 

coming to Haroun's ears, he was exceedingly 
enraged ; and considering it an unpardonable liberty 
to take with his name and dignity, ordered the poet 
to be thrown into prison. Abu 'Atahiyeh, knowing 
how susceptible the monarch was to flattery, 
especially if couched in true poetic language, soon 
contrived to purchase his release with a few 
appropriate lines of eulogy, and so far ingratiated 
himself with Alraschid, that the latter promised him 



A bit. ' Atdkiyek, the Poet. 189 

that he would himself endeavour to further his suit, 
and if the damsel accepted it, to give the happy- 
couple a magnificent wedding present. Other 
matters, however, occupied his attention, and he 
forgot all about his promise. Abu 'Atahiyeh, not 
finding the opportunity of personally reminding him 
of it, composed three verses, and writing one of them 
upon each of three fans, induced Mesrur to give them 
to the Caliph at a favourable moment. On one of 
them Haroun read — 

" I court full oft the breezes fair, 
If haply they the news might bear, 
Of hopes at last fulfilled for me : 
And in the fragrance of their sighs 
A perfume sweet I recognise. 
Breathed from thy liberality." 

" The scamp writes well," said Haroun. On the 
second fan was written — 

" My spirit, like a noble steed, 

With outstretched neck and eager pace, 
Doth ever to thy presence speed, 
And for thy bounty onward race." 

*' Bravo !" said the Caliph ; and taking up the third 
fan, he found written upon it — 

'' And oft, when I should else despair, 
I bid myself more hopeful be, 
For he is of a nature rare, 

Who guaranteed success to me." 



1 90 Haroun Alraschid. 

"Not so bad!" said the Caliph, and at once sent 
for the poet, and promised that he would without 
fail bring his suit to a favourable issue on the 
morrow. He next despatched a message to the 
slave girl, that she was to expect him the same 
evening, as he had a request to prefer to her, which 
he could only make in person. At the time men- 
tioned, Haroun arrived at Otbah's apartments, 
attended by his favourite eunuchs, and said to her — 
" Before I tell you what I require, you must promise 
me to fulfil it." " I am your handmaid," she replied, 
"and will obey you in everything, except in the 
matter of Abu 'Atahiyeh, for I promised your late 
father so, by every oath that can bind the good and 
bad ; I swore that if I married Abu 'Atahiyeh, I 
would walk barefoot to Mecca, and that as soon as 
one pilgrimage was over I would undertake another, 
and that no penitence should avail me instead ; 
and that whatever I might possess I would give to 
the poor, except the carpet I pray upon !" She then 
threw herself at the Caliph's feet, and, bursting into 
a paroxysm of weeping, besought him to spare her ; 
whereupon Alraschid promised not to trouble her 
any more upon the point. The next morning Abu 
'Atahiyeh appeared before him, radiant with the hope 
of success ; but the Caliph said, " I have done my 
best for you, as Mesrur, Raschid, and the other 
servants can testify, but I could not prevail upon 



A bit ' Atdkiyek' s Disappointment. 191 

your mistress to accept your suit." The poor poet, 
who appears to have been deeply attached to the 
lady, was so overcome by his disappointment, that he 
assumed the dervish garb, and took the vows of a 
monastic Hfe. The following is an extract from a 
poem in which he laments the loss of his lady love — 

** I have cut the strong cords of my hope all apart, 
From the back of my camel the saddle I've ta'en, 
For the chill of despair has got hold on my heart, 
And I care not to camp or to travel again !" 

Haroun Alraschid was very fond of listening to 
the songs of the boatmen during his progresses up 
and down the Tigris, but their inaccurate pronuncia- 
tion and often improper language offended his pure 
Arab ears. He therefore one day bade his attendants 
bring him a poet to compose something that the 
men might sing without committing such frequent 
solecisms. It turned out that Abu 'Atahiyeh was the 
only one capable of performing the task, and he was 
in prison. Haroun sent off to him, with orders to send 
the required poem immediately. Abu 'Atahiyeh, who 
relates the story, says, " As he made no mention of 
setting me at liberty, I determined to write something 
which should make him weep rather than amuse him, 
and having composed the lines, I handed them to 
the officers who had brought the message." This 
composition is extant, and is a very fair, but by no 



192 Haroun Alrasckid, 

means extraordinary, copy of verses on the vanity of 
human wishes and the certainty of death : they seem, 
however, to have produced the desired effect upon 
the Caliph, who wept so copiously on hearing the 
boatmen sing them, that El Fadhl ibn Rabi was 
obliged to tell them to stop. But then Haroun, as 
the old historians tell us, " was the most easily moved 
to tears and the quickest to get in a passion of any 
man living." 

Another instance of the Caliph's high-handed 
' proceedings is the following : — 

Salih ibn Mehran, one of the intimates of Haroun 
Alraschid, relates that one day, being summoned into 
the Caliph's presence, he found him in a very gloomy 
mood. After a few moments, Haroun raised his 
head, and said, " Go this moment and take from 
Mansur ibn Ziyad ten million dirhems, and if he refuses 
to pay them, bring me his head ! If you hesitate and 
fail to execute my command, I swear by the soul of 
my father Mehdi that I will decapitate you ! " Salih 
asked what he was to do in case Mansur paid part at 
once, and gave security for the payment of the 
on the following day. Haroun answered, " If 
very day he fail to pay ten million dirhems in r 
money, behead him ! Let me hear no more idle t 
Salih felt assured from this that the Caliph was 
upon taking Mansur's life, and came away in |j > I 
distress, for the person threatened was a friend o 



The Barmecides. 193 

own, and one of the most influential persons in 
Bagdad. However, he went straight to his house, 
and, taking him aside, told him what had happened. 
Mansur threw himself at Salih's feet, and weeping, 
said, " The Commander of the Faithful must have re- 
solved to take my life, for he knows well enough that 
I have never had so much money, and that I could 
not collect it in a lifetime ; how, then, am I to do so 
in one day ? For Allah's sake do me one favour, and 
let me go back into the house to bid farewell to my 
family, and let me entrust all the property I have 
into your hands for distribution among them when I 
am dead. No harm can come to you, because when 
I have said good-bye to my poor children, and handed 
the money over to you, you can cut off my head, 
and tell the Caliph that you have executed his 
orders." Salih acceded to his request so far as to 
bring him into the house, and when the sad news 
became known, the family set up a heart-rending 
i^o--- jtation. He then allowed him to make over his 

rty, &c., in the manner he desired, and was 

to carry him off to a convenient place of exe- 

'.;;.; I. Mansur, in despair, but still clinging to life, 

o him, " O Salih, in the old times, long before 

m Alraschid was Caliph, I quarrelled with 
1 yi 'bn Khalid, the Barmecide, and since then I 

always received insults and annoyance at his 
except on one occasion, when the ' Farthing- 



194 Haroun Alraschid. 

grubber ' ^ became displeased with me, and handed 
me over to him for punishment ; then he treated me 
with the greatest kindness, and interceded with the 
Cah'ph for me. His house is on the way ; pray take 
me there, perhaps he may have pity on me." Salih 
agreed to this, and they reached Yahya's house just 
as he had finished his prayers. The latter, seeing 
Mansur's agitation and distress, asked the cause, and, 
when he heard it, promised to do what he could for 
him. Sending for his treasurer, he found that he had 
not enough money on hand, but by the help of his 
two sons, Jaafer and Fadhl, contrived to get together 
seven millions, promising the rest next day. Salih 
ibn Mehran explained that his orders were imperative, 
and that he must have the whole sum that day, or 
take the prisoner's head to the Caliph. When Jaafer 
heard this, he ordered a favourite slave girl of his to 
start off at once and borrow the amount from Fatima, 
Haroun's sister. The Princess, who was a very 
generously disposed woman, sent a valuable necklet, 
worth the sum asked for; and Yahya, having thus pro- 
cured the ten million dirhems, sent them off by porters 
with Mansur. The Caliph asked how the money had 
been procured, and, learning the particulars, com- 
manded that it should be placed in the treasury, that 

1 Abu Jaafer Mansur, the grandfather of Haroun Alraschid, and 
Caliph of the Abbaside dynasty, was so called because of his avaricious 
disposition. 



Anecdote of Yahya. 195 

Mansur should be released, and that Yahya should 
be summoned before him. When Yahya came, he 
found Haroun Alraschid in a worse humour than 
before, and began to fear that his interposition in 
favour of Mansur might have brought himself into 
trouble, but his wit and persuasive conversation soon 
so far softened the Caliph's heart that the Minister 
ventured to ask how Mansur had fallen into dis- 
grace. Haroun told him that it was partly because 
he suspected his loyalty, but chiefly because he had 
treated Yahya himself so badly — the very man who 
had now come forward to save him. The matter 
of the necklace was still a sore point, and Alraschid 
took it very ill that Yahya should have asked the 
Princess for such a thing. " Your Majesty," said the 
Minister, "when Allah sends trouble on a man, he 
will look anywhere for a way out of it!" Haroun 
laughed ; but he sent for his sister, and reproached 
her bitterly for her share in the transaction. She 
merely answered " that she looked upon Yahya as 
a father, and could not be so unfilial as to refuse him 
so trifling a request." The Caliph was obliged to be 
content with this, and gave her back the necklace. 

The crowd who had in the meantime collected 
about the palace gates were very much astonished to 
see both Mansur and Yahya issue forth with their 
heads still upon their shoulders. 

Nothing can show better than this incident the 



196 Ha7'oti7i Ab^aschid. 

noble character of the Barmecides, the avarice and 
despotic tyranny of their master, and the terrible 
insecurity of life and property under his reign. 

A story told of the survivors of the unfortunate 
family illustrates the ingenious methods by which the 
Arabs of the day knew how to convey a covert reproach 
to their superiors, and shows Haroun's own quickness 
at detecting such remarks. A woman one day pre- 
sented herself before the Caliph when he was sur- 
rounded by the most notable persons of his court, 
and addressed him thus — " O Commander of the 
Faithful ! may Allah give repose to thine eye, and 
make thee rejoice in what He has given thee, for 
thou hast judged, and hast been just." "Who are 
you.'"' asked Alraschid. "I am a woman of the 
sons of Barmek," said she, " whose men you slew, 
and whose wealth you seized." The Caliph answered, 
" As for the men, they suffered what Allah decreed. 
As for their wealth, it has been restored to whence 
came." Then turning to his courtiers, he asked, " 
you understand what this woman said.?" "Nou. 
but good," they answered. " Nay," said Hare 
" I do not think you quite understand her. W 
she said, ' May Allah give repose to thine eye,' 
meant, literally, ' may it cease from motion ' — tha 
in blindness or death. When she said, ' May 
make thee rejoice in what He has given thee,' 
alluded to the words of the Koran — ' And when 



U lazy eh a7td the Page-boy. 197 

rejoiced in what was given them, we punished them 
on a sudden!' (chap, vi., ver. 47). And when she 
said, 'Thou hast judged, and been just,' she used the 
last word in the sense of trespassing, in which it 
occurs in another passage, ' and as for the trespassers, 
they are fuel for hell !' " (chap. Ixxii., ver. 15). 

A talent for playing with the text of the Koran 
seems to have been inherent in the family of the 
Caliph. Ulaiyeh, one of his sisters, was a poetess 
of considerable talent, and used to celebrate in her 
verses a young page called Tell (Dew), for whom 
she had conceived a violent attachment; and Haroun, 
being informed of the circumstance, forbade her ever 
to mention the name of her lover again. One day 
he passed by her apartment, and overheard her 
reading the Koran. When she came to the verse, 
" A heavy shower falls on it, and it brings forth food 
twofold ; and if no heavy shower falls on it, there 
falls the dew" (chap, ii., ver. 261), instead of pro- 
nouncing the last word, she read — " there falls 

what the Commander of the Faithful has forbidden 
me to mention !" Haroun laughed, and, entering 
the apartment, kissed her on the forehead and said, 
" Well, well, I will allow you Tell in future." 

Ulaiyeh appears to have been on good terms with 
Zobeideh, the Caliph's chief wife, and on more than 
one occasion employed her musical and poetical 
talents for the purpose of reconciling the two, when. 



198 HaroMfi Alraschid, 

as was too frequently the case, Haroun gave the 
princess cause for jealousy. Thus, finding herself 
neglected for the company of a new favourite, 
Zobeideh complained to her sister-in-law, who pro- 
mised to win back her husband's affections for her. 
Having composed a pretty air, she adapted it to some 
appropriate words, and taught the whole of her own 
and Zobeideh's female attendants to sing it. Then 
dressing the girls in their most splendid garments, the 
two princesses, placing themselves at the head of the 
troop, rushed unexpectedly into the courtyard, where 
the Caliph was regaling himself, and burst out with 
one voice into the melody. Haroun's heart was 
touched ; he started up to meet his wife, took her 
hand, and, placing her by his side, remained with her 
for the rest of the day, which he declared was the 
happiest he had ever passed. 

An anecdote is extant of the introduction of Fadhl 
ibn Yahya, the Barmecide, into the apartments of the 
Princess Ulaiyeh, which, though having no particular 
point in it, throws some light on the domestic arran -? 
ments of the Court of Haroun Alraschid. I will give- 
it in the words of El Fadhl himself, as related b 
son of Jaafer's, who, when a little boy, overheard In-? 
uncle relating the circumstance to his grandfather 

" My father," said El Fadhl, " the Commande r of 
the Faithful, took me by the hand, and led 
through a chamber until we came to a room^ 



Fadhl's Introduction to Ulaiyeh. 199 

door of which was locked. As soon as it was 
opened, he sent away the servants who were in 
attendance, and we went on until we reached another 
locked door, which the Caliph himself opened. This 
we passed through, and he locked it after us on the 
inside. We then went on to a corridor, and stopped at 
the door of an apartment from within which the sound 
of voices proceeded. Alraschid sat down by this door, 
and tapped it gently with his knuckles, on which we 
heard a rustling noise within, and a sweet voice 
suddenly burst forth in song to the sound of a lute, 
the melody being one of my own composing ; I was 
so charmed and excited at hearing it, that I could 
have dashed my head against the wall. Then the 
air changed, and the person within the room sang 
an air of Ulaiyeh's, and the Caliph and I danced 
together to the tune. Then he said, * Let us be off, 
or we shall make still greater fools of ourselves ;' 
and we accordingly turned to depart. When we had 
reached the vestibule of the suite of apartments, 
Haroun seized me by the hand and said, ' Do you 
know who that woman was .'*' ' No, Commander of 
the Faithful!' I replied. He rejoined, 'I know that 
you will ask after h^r if I do not tell you, and so the 
matter will get abroad. Now I myself tell you that it 
was Ulaiyeh my sister, and, by Allah ! if you breathe 
a word of this to anyone, I will assuredly kill you." 
In \kit Arabian Nights stories, the Princess Zobeideh 



200 Haroun Ahaschid. 

plays a considerable part ; she also appears in many 
of the anecdotes of Haroun Alraschid's reign which 
are found in other Arabic works. Very few of these 
are, however, suitable for reproduction here. 

Zobeideh was, as I have before said, the cousin and 
principal wife of the Caliph, and appears to have 
exercised a much greater control over him than 
might have been expected, considering his violent 
temper and impatience of contradiction. She was 
also of a very jealous disposition, and often rated 
her imperial husband soundly for his numerous 
amours and frequent escapades. 

It is related that Alraschid was one day in a very 
sullen and gloomy temper, when Abu Nawwas came 
in, and endeavoured to cheer and amuse him, but 
without success. At last the jester remarked, " Why 
is the Commander of the Faithful so sad t By Allah ! 
I never saw anyone so unjust to himself as your 
Majesty is. Why do you not enjoy the pleasures 
of this world and the next, both of which are wil . ■ 
your grasp. As for the pleasures of the next wo 
they are to be had by charity to the poor 
the orphan, by performing the pilgrimage to Me 
by repairing mosques, by founding schools, anc i. > 
improving the country, for all which things you will 
reap a rich reward. And as for the pleasures of ; ■ ::. 
world, they are the enjoyment of delicious foods and 
drinks, and surrounding yourself with damsels * ; 1 



Abie Naivwds and Zobeideh. 201 

or of middle height or short, sweet blondes or luscious 
brunettes, girls of Medina, or Hijaz, or Room, or 
Irak, in stature as straight as Samhari lances, with 
wits as keen as their forms are fair, and tongues as 
eloquent as their eyes are bright." And talking in 
this strain, Abu Nawwas at length aroused the 
Caliph from his lethargy and departed. Presently 
Zobeideh entered the apartment, and by dint of 
cajoling and entreaty induced him to repeat to her 
all that Abu Nawwas had said. " Did you not scold 
him," asked she, "for giving you such advice.^" 
"Why should I scold him when the advice was so 
good V was the reply ; whereupon Zobeideh started 
up and left the room in a rage. Having reached her 
own palace, she summoned her slaves, and ordered 
them to follow Abu Nawwas and give him a sound 
beating. The slaves obeyed, and going to Abu 
Nawwas's house — where they found him in high 
spirits at the Caliph's having listened to him, and 
expectant of reward — fell upon him, and beat him 
so severely that, had not his women interfered and 
rescued him, he would have been killed. As it was, 
he was confined to his bed for some days with the 
injuries which he had received. Alraschid, who knew 
nothing of this transaction, at length sent for the 
poet, and Mesrur, who brought the message, was 
much surprised at his condition, but, notwithstanding 
it, induced him to accompany him back to the palace. 



202 HaroMu Alraschid. 



Haroun received him very graciously, bade him sit 
down, and asked how it was that he had not seen 
him for so long. Now Abu Nawwas had, upon 
his entry, remarked an open door with a curtain 
hanging before it, and some one moving behind it, 
whom he shrewdly conjectured to be the Princess 
Zobeideh. So he determined this time to be cautious, 
and replied that he had been ill. " I am sorry for it," 
said the Caliph. " By-the-bye, that was a capital 
discourse of yours the other day about the damsels. 
I should like to hear it again." " Yes," said Abu 
Nawwas, " I was telling your Majesty that the Arabs 
derived the word dharrah, ' rival wife,' from dharar, 
' harm,' and that their proverb has it, ' He who has 
two wives, lives the rest of his life in trouble and 
sorrow ; and he who has three wives, his whole 
life is disturbed ; and he who has four, may be 
reckoned as a dead man, though he be alive;' that 
is what I suggested to your Majesty ; and I added 
that whosoever was content with one, finds in her 
honour and glory." Alraschid shouted out, " May I 
be quit of my religion, if I heard a word of the sort 
from you!" "Perhaps it may have slipped your 
Majesty's memory," said Abu Nawwas, meekly ; " but 
there is one thing which I wished to add, and that is, 
that the Beni Makhzum^ are, according to the Arab 

^ The branch of the Koreish to which Zobeideh belonged. 



Abu Nawwds and Zobeideh, 203 

proverb, the flower of the Koreish tribe, and that you 
have espoused Casim's daughter Zobeideh, who is the 
flower of flowers and the joy of beholders, and that 
I saw from the expression of your Majesty's face that 
you were hankering after other maidens, and I wished 
to point out that this lady was the only one suitable 
for your Majesty." "Confound you!" said Haroun, 
furious; "do you mean to make me out a liar, O 
Abu Nawwas ? " " Do you wish to kill me before my 
time?" retorted the other, "or to lay me up again 
with nothing but my rage to console me?" At this 
a laugh was heard from behind the curtain, and a 
voice said, " You have spoken the truth, Abu Nawwas ; 
you never gave him any advice different to that which 
you have given him now ; it was only his own loose 
ideas which distorted your words." " Yes, yes," said 
Abu Nawwas; and, rising up hastily, hurried off home 
in a fright, lest he might have gone too far. How- 
ever, when he arrived at his house, he was met by 
some servants of the Princess Zobeideh, who were 
bringing him a costly present. Whereupon he swore 
that he would never say another word that should 
cause the lady annoyance. Haroun was much amused 
when he learnt the whole truth, and consoled Abu 
Nawwas for his beating with a present from himself 
as well. 

Zobeideh never ceased to urge upon her husband 
the claims of her son Emin to the entire succession, 



204 Haroim Alraschid. 

as belonging to the pure Hashemi race on both 
parents' side, and she was exceedingly jealous of 
Haroun's other son, Manriun, whom she hated not 
only as the child of a rival, but as having Persian 
blood in his veins, and more particularly because of 
the much more brilliant intellect which he displayed. 
This subject was the cause of many stormy scenes 
between the royal pair, several of which are related 
by the Arab historians on the authority of eye- 
witnesses. On one occasion, the story goes, the fond 
mother asserted that Emm was an excellent poet, 
and induced him to submit some of his verses to 
Abu Nawwas's criticism. When the latter pointed 
out some gross violation of the rules of prosody in 
one of the lines, the young prince flew into a passion, 
and caused Abu Nawwas to be imprisoned. Some 
time after, Haroun Alraschid sent for the poet, was 
surprised to learn of his incarceration and the reason 
of it, and severely reproved his son. Emin asked to 
be allowed to read some other verses in the presence 
of his father as well as of Abu Nawwas, and the 
Caliph acceded to his request. As soon as Abu 
Nawwas had heard the first few lines, he started 
up to leave the room. "Where are you going?" 
asked Haroun. "Back to prison!" was the reply. 
The character of Emin was indeed most frivolous 
and unstable, and one incident alone will show how 
unfit he was to govern. When, after Haroun's death. 



Alraschid' s Son, Abu 'Isd. 205 

war had broken out between the two brothers, the 
important town of Rhe, in Persia, had declared 
against him, and a messenger brought him news of 
the defeat of his armies, and the proclamation of 
Mamun as Caliph, he was fishing at the time, and 
merely remarked, " Do not trouble me ; Kauther 
here has caught two fine fish, and I have not caught 
one !" 

Another member of Haroun's family, his son, Abu 
'Isa,by a foreign mother, was also a very talented singer. 
He died in the reign of Mamun, and one of the latter's 
courtiers — ^who was much attached to the deceased — 
when he heard of it, took off his turban and threw it 
upon the ground. Now it was the custom at the 
Court that, when a Caliph died, the mourners should 
remove their turbans — a thing to which no Moham- 
medan will consent at other times ; Mamun, therefore, 
took the action ill, and said sarcastically, " Fate has 
interposed between you and your wish" — meaning 
that Abu 'Isa had not lived to succeed or supplant him 
himself. The other, with courtly sagacity, replied — 
" Commander of the Faithful, any misfortune that 
avoids you is easy to bear. Allah has been pleased 
this time to impose mourning on you, and not for 
you." Mamun was himself so affected by his brother's 
death, that he refused food for so long a time that his 
life was in danger. 

The next anecdote exhibits in a very striking 



2o6 Haroun A Iras chid. 

manner the way in which poets and musicians were 
received at the Court of Bagdad. Ishak ibn Ibrahim 
el Mosih', the celebrated singer and composer, was a 
great favourite with Haroun Alraschid. One day he 
sang a verse before the Caliph and his half-brother, 
Ibrahim ibn el Mehdi, when the latter, who himself 
laid some claim to musical talent, interrupted him by 
telling him that he was singing neither correctly nor 
sweetly, "You know nothing about the matter," 
said the musician ; " try it yourself, and if you don't 
make a mistake in every verse from beginning to 
end, you may take my life!" Ishak then turned to 
the Caliph, and said, "O Commander of the Faithful! 
this is my art, and my father's art ; it is what has 
brought us near you, and placed us in your service, 
and caused us to tread upon your carpet ; and if 
persons who know nothing of it wrangle with us 
about it, we cannot help speaking out our mind." " I 
don't blame you at all," said the Caliph, and left the 
room. As soon as he had gone, Ibrahim started up, 
and, coming towards Ishak, exclaimed, " Dare you 
talk to me in that way, you nameless son of a slave- 
girl.?" At this the singer's rage knew no bounds, 
and he screamed out, " You abuse me because you 
think I cannot answer you, because you are the son 
of a Caliph and the brother of a Caliph ! — if it were 
not for that, I would call you the son of a slave-girl. 
Perhaps you think I dare not call you the son of a 



Haroun's Brother and the Musician. 207 

slave-girl ! but if I were to abuse you, it would only 
reflect on your uncle, El A'alam, who was a most 
respectable man, and a farrier !"^ Thinking then that 
he had gone a little too far, Ishak followed up this 
piece of abuse with another, deliberately devised, as he 
himself tells us, to produce an effect upon the Caliph 
when the incident should be reported to him. " I 
suppose," said he, " you think the Caliphate already 
belongs to you, and that you can frighten me as you 
do all the other friends of your brother, because you 
envy him and his sons the empire. But you are not 
strong enough to stand against them, and you are 
not strong enough to rule that empire. So you make 
light of their friends to give a vent to your wrath ! 
But I trust Allah will never let the empire go out of 
the hands of Alraschid and his sons, and that he will 
kill you before it can ! But if it should — which Allah 
forbid ! — life has no more value for me, and I should 
prefer to die rather than live under you, so you 
can do with me then just as you "please!" When 
Alraschid returned, Ibrahim jumped up, and, standing 
before him, said, "O Commander of the Faithful ! this 
man has been abusing me, and has talked about my 
mother, and treated me with contumely." " What 
have you been saying.?" asked the Caliph, angrily. 

1 Ibrahim was the son of Mehdi, Haroun's father, by one of the 
inferior wives ; the mention of her family relations makes the taunt all 
the worse to the proud Abbaside prince. 



2o8 Haroun Ali^aschid. 

" I do not know," said Ishak. "Ask those who were 
present." So Alraschid turned to Mesrur and 
Honein, another attendant, and asked them what 
had passed between his brother and the musician. 
When he heard the words repeated, his face at first 
grew livid, and he absolutely foamed at the mouth 
with rage ; but when the remarks about the Caliphate 
were mentioned, he seemed a little more composed, 
and, addressing himself to Ibrahim, said, " It was 
your own fault ; you should not have abused him 
first ; he only told you that he dared not answer 
you. So back to your place, and do not be guilty 
of such folly in future !" When the assembly broke 
up, he signed to Ishak to stay behind, which the 
latter did with no small apprehension. " Do you 
think," said Haroun, Vv^hen they were alone together, 
" that I did not see the drift of your remarks } You 
made the same reproach three times to him that he 
had made to you. Do you think if Ibrahim beats you 
that I shall beat him in return 1 or do you imagine 
that, if he orders his servants to kill you, I shall 
take blood vengeance for you — when he is my ow" 
brother.?" "O Commander of the Faithful !" said 
poor singer, "you have killed me with those worn-: , 
if he hears of them, he is sure to kill me ! I expect Iv; 
has heard them already!" Then the Caliph cal v 
for Mesrur, and told him to send Ibrahim to hinr; ■^\ 
once. Ishak, who was dismissed before the pri 



Haroun 's Brother and the Mtisician. 209 

came in, learned the particulars of the interview 
from one of the attendants. As his brother entered, 
Haroun began to reproach him for his folly, and said, 
" Do you treat with contumely my servant, and my 
companion, and the son of my companion, and make 
light of my kindness and that of my father to him, 
and this in my own court too, holding my court 
and Majesty up to ridicule ? Ah ! ah ! ah ! you 
attack this man and his fellows because you happen 
to be rich ? Who forced you to contend with him, 
and to compete in music with one whose profession 
and livelihood it is ? Then you think you can find 
fault with his art, while you know nothing whatever 
about it, till he obliges you to answer his arguments, 
and you cannot do so, and make yourself ridiculous, 
and display your ignorance, and ill breeding, and 
conceit ! Now, by Allah ! and by His prophet ! and 
by my father's grave ! if anybody harms him, or if a 
stone from heaven falls on him, or if he even falls off 
his horse, or if a roof falls on him, or if he drops 
down dead, I will kill you. By Allah, I will ! by 
Allah, I will ! by Allah, I will ! And now be off." 
The poor prince went out crestfallen and half-dead 
with fear on hearing this outburst of rage. For some 
time afterwards, when Ibrahim and Ishak were 
together in the Caliph's presence, the latter would 
look first at one and then at the other, and then 
burst out laughing. One day he said to his brother, 
o 



210 Haroun Alraschid. 

"I know you have really a liking for Ishak, and enjoy 
receiving lessons in music from him, and that he will 
not come ta you until you have given him satisfac- 
tion — now give him a present, and treat him kindly, 
and recognise his merit, and if after that he annoys 
you, you may deal with him as you please with a 
long tongue and a heavy hand !" Then he turned to 
Ishak and said, " Do you go up and kiss the head of 
one who is your master and your master's son." 
Ishak complied, and so the feud between the prince 
and the singer was ended. 

Ishak had been prohibited by the Caliph from 
singing to anyone but himself or his friend and 
vizier, Jaafer the Barmecide. On one occasion El 
Fadhl, Jaafer's brother, charmed with his singing and 
conversation, induced him by a bribe of a thousand 
dirhems to spend the evening at his house, and 
promised not to betray him. The news was, how- 
ever, brought to Haroun, who was lying ill at Rakka 
at the time, and was exceedingly annoyed when he 
heard of it. He at once sent for Ishak, who, sus- 
pecting something was wrong, returned the money 
to El Fadhl, and when the Caliph reproached him 
with having, disobeyed his orders, and entertained El 
Fadhl at Bagdad while his master was lying lonely 
and ill at Rakka, swore that he had only passed the 
evening in conversation, and had not sung a note. 
Alraschid was obliged to be content with this expla- 



The Caliph and the Convent. 211 

nation, and gave him a sum of money equivalent to 
tliat which he had returned. 

Ishak also relates that, being one day out hunting 
with the Caliph, the latter rode ahead, and he, feeling 
tired, made for a small convent which he observed 
close by, and asked for shelter. He was hospitably 
entertained by the prior, a venerable man, v/ho set 
good meat and wine before him, and amused him with 
a recital of his own experiences, which extended back 
as far as the preceding dynasty of the Ommiades, 
several princes of which family had also been his 
guests. To complete Ishak's satisfaction, he was 
waited upon at table by a clever and beautiful nun, 
and the time passed so rapidly that it was late in the 
evening before he returned to camp. The Caliph 
was angry at his absence, but hearing of his adven- 
ture, and some verses which he had improvised on 
the occasion, gave orders to delay their departure for 
another day, that he might himself visit the hospitable 
little Christian community. This he did the next 
morning, and was so charmed with his entertainment 
that he also remained the whole day, ^nd, on taking 
his leave, made a present of a thousand dinars (nearly 
;^50o) to the monastery, and remitted the taxes on 
the lands and gardens belonging to it for seven years. 

El Asmai, another of the Caliph's literary friends, 
was a complete master of the Arabic language, and the 
most eminent of the authors, poets, and story-tellers 



212 Haroun Ah^aschid, 

of the day. He was a native of Basra, but removed 
to Bagdad in the reign of Haroun Alraschid. Abu 
Nawwas being told that he and Abu Obeidah, another 
accomplished scholar, were at court, replied, " As for 
Abu Obeidah, he will recite to them, if they will let 
him, all the history of the ancients, and the moderns 
too; but as for El Asmai, he is a nightingale who will 
enchant them by his songs." It is said that he knew 
by heart sixteen thousand pieces of verse in one 
metre alone. Between him and this Abu Obeidah a 
rivalry existed, and he himself tells the following 
story : — " I and Abu Obeidah went one day to visit 
Fadhl ibn er Rabi, the minister, who asked me of how 
many volumes my work upon horses was composed. 
I answered him, * of only one.' He then asked the 
same question of Abu Obeidah, who said his consisted 
of fifty volumes. * Go over to that horse,' said the 
Vizier, * and name the various parts of it.' * I am 
no farrier,' he replied ; ' but all that I have compiled 
on the subject was gleaned from the Arabs of the 
desert' At a hint from Fadhl, I then went up, and 
laying my hand on each part of the animal in suc- 
cession, named them, and recited an appropriate 
verse from some old Arab poet concerning each. 
When I had finished, he bade me keep the horse ; 
and whenever I wished to annoy Abu Obeidah, I 
rode on that horse to pay him a visit." 

El Asmai, who had, as was usual with his class. 



El Asmai. 213 



neglected to economise and provide for his old age, 
waited upon Haroun Alraschid for a long time after his 
accession, but was never fortunate enough to attract 
his attention. At length one day, as he was sitting 
disconsolate at the gate, almost determined to relin- 
quish his hopes of the new Caliph's bounty and seek 
for a livelihood elsewhere, the door opened, and an 
attendant asked, " Is there anyone here who can make 
good poetry ?" El Asmai jumped up, and exclaimed, 
" I am the man for that." " Come, then," said the ser- 
vant; "follow me into the palace, and if the Commander 
of the Faithful is only pleased with your verse, you may 
look upon this evening as the dawn of your fortunes !" 
The Caliph, who was sitting upon a sofa, with Jaafer 
the Barmecide beside him, acknowledged El Asmai's 
salutation as he entered, and said to him kindly, " If 
you feel at all flurried or frightened, sit down and 
compose yourself before improvising anything." El 
Asmai, fearing that such an opportunity might not 
occur again, explained that he was ready to exhibit 
his skill either as a poet or a reciter. After pro- 
posing some very difficult questions in literature, 
which the other answered promptly and correctly, 
Haroun asked him to recite a certain poem. This 
he at once began to do very glibly ; but coming to 
a passage in which the previous and rival dynasty 
of the Ommiades was eulogised, he skilfully passed 
it over, and went on to another part of the ode which 



214 Haroiui Ab^aschid. 

contained a panegyric upon Haroun's own grand- 
father, Mansur. " Did you leave the passage out on 
purpose/' asked Alraschid, " or from forgetfulness ?" 
"On purpose," said the poet; "I left out the lies 
about the Ommiades, and told the truth about 
Mansur;" and was complimented on his courtier- 
like diplomacy. In his next recitation, which he 
performed very quickly, with a view to show his 
thorough familiarity with the old Arab literature, 
Jaafer interrupted him by saying, " Gently, gently ! 
You need not be in such haste to depart; you 
will get paid for your trouble." " Since you have 
promised him payment," said the Caliph, " you must 
join me in the expense." " And I," replied El Asmai, 
" will improvise you a contention for excellence 
between Arab and Persian, that the Caliph and his 
minister may contend as to which can give me the 
largest reward." A little later on, the poet was 
reciting some well-known verses which contain a 
long description of a camel, and Jaafer said, " Stop ; 
cannot you find something better than a camel for 
us to talk about all night.?" "It was that same 
camel," remarked Alraschid, sarcastically, " that took 
the crown from your heads and the kingdom from 
your monarchs !" alluding to the conquest of Persia, 
Jaafer's fatherland, by the Arabs, whose most 
typical possession is the camel. " Praise be to 
Allah !" said Jaafer ; " I ask pardon." " You are 



El Walid and the Siitglng Girl, 215 

wrong again," said Haroun ; " you should not say, 
'Praise be to Allah!' when you are speaking of mis- 
fortunes, but rather, ' I ask aid of Allah ! ' " ^ 

Another of the Court singers was Hisham ibn 
Suleiman, formerly a freedman of the Ommiade 
family, and a favourite with the last sovereigns of 
that dynasty. One day he sang before Haroun 
Alraschid, and so pleased the Caliph, that he gave 
him a costly necklace which he happened to have on 
at the time. No sooner had Hisham beheld the 
present than his eyes filled with tears, and when 
Haroun asked him to explain the cause, he related 
the following incident : — " As the Caliph Walid was 
one day seated by the Lake of Tiberias, I approached, 
and found him surrounded by a company of very 
beautiful singing girls. Not recognising me, as I had 
my lithain^ over my face, he said — * Here comes a 
desert Arab ; let us call him up and make fun of him.' 
So I joined the party, when one of the girls began to 
play and sing a song and air of my own composing, but 
made several mistakes in it, and I could not refrain 
from telling her that she was not singing correctly. 
At this she laughed, and, turning to El Walid, said — 
* O Commander of the Faithful ! do you hear what 

1 These and similar stereotyped formulae are used to the present day 
in speaking Arabic. There is one for nearly every occurrence in life. 

2 A sort of veil worn by the Arabs, both for purposes of concealment 
and to protect themselves from the sun. 



2i6 Hai'Oun Alraschid. 

this desert Arab says ? — he is finding fault with our 
singing.' At this the Caliph looked at me somewhat 
annoyed, but I explained the mistakes to him, and 
offered to sing the song myself. When I had 
finished, the girl jumped up and threw herself upon 
my neck, crying out, *My master Hisham, by the 
Lord of the Ka'abeh!' I at once removed my veil, 
was recognised by the Caliph, and passed the 
remainder of the day with him. Presently, the barge 
approached to take them to the camp, but, before 
leaving, Walid made me a handsome present, and the 
girl, having asked his permission, gave me this very 
necklace as a keepsake. The Caliph then embarked, 
one of the girls stepped in after him, and the other 
who had recognised me was about to follow, when her 
foot slipped ; she fell into the water, and was never 
seen again. El Walid wept grievously at her loss, 
and begged of me to let him have the necklace, for 
which he gave me a large sum of money in exchange. 
It was the memory of this incident that made me 
weep when I saw the necklace." Haroun Alraschid's 
only comment on the story was, " How marvellous is 
Allah's grace, that, while he has given me the throne 
of the Ommiades for an inheritance, he has given me 
their personal property too !" 

This story bears the semblance of reality. Many 
of the narrations of personal adventures with which 
the courtiers entertained their master were,. however, 



An Eastern Munchausen. 217 

evidently drawn from the resources of their own 
fertile imaginations. Some of those in the Arabian 
Nights are good specimens of this kind of improvised 
romance, and others are found scattered through 
works which pretend to greater historical accuracy, 
and are mixed up with the more authentic stories. 
One Obeid ibn el Abras, a poet, for instance, told 
Alraschid as a fact how, when once upon a pilgrimage 
to Mecca, the road of the caravan in which he was 
travelling was barred by a great dragon, whose roar- 
ing and threatening attitude forced them to choose 
another path. There they were met by a similar 
monster, and as no one else ventured to attack it 
and retreat was impossible, Obeid drew his sword, 
and, taking a girbeh, or water-skin, as a shield, 
advanced to the attack. The beast opened its mouth 
as if to swallow the intrepid Arab, when the latter 
pushed the water-skin into its mouth. To his 
astonishment, the dragon swallowed the water greedily, 
and went quietly off. On his return from Mecca, 
Obeid became benighted and lost his way, when a 
mysterious voice was heard bidding him mount a 
camel that stood beside him. He did so, and in a 
short time came in sight of the caravan. The camel 
then halted, Obeid dismounted, and the voice informed 
him that his guide was the dragon, grateful to him 
for having relieved his thirst. To people as supersti- 
tious as the Arabs, with whom a belief in jinjis, or 
o 2 



2i8 HaroMfi Airaschid. .^^ 

genie, is an article of faith, and whose works on 
natural history contain minute and so-called scientific 
accounts of all the monsters of mediaeval romance, 
this story may not have seemed so improbable. At 
any rate, it gained its narrator a large pecuniary 
reward. 

Sometimes the story would turn upon some point 
of theological law, which was sure to interest the 
pious and learned Caliph, and to which the narrator 
would contrive to give a witty turn. El Asmai 
once told Haroun that he knew a man who had 
divorced five wives in one day. " How is that 
possible," asked the Caliph, "when the law only 
allows him to have four.?" El Asmai said — "The 
man had four wives, and, coming home one day, found 
them all quarrelling together. ' How long am I to 
have this disturbance in my house } This is your 
doing,' said he, turning to one of his wives, * and you 
are divorced ! ' ' You need not have divorced her in 
such a hurry,' said the second ; ' you might have 
admonished her first!' 'And you are divorced too 
for interfering,' said the man. Then the third inter- 
posed, and abused him, saying that he had lost two 
good women. ' Then,' retorted he, ' I will lose a third ; 
you are divorced too.' The fourth next struck in — 
' Cannot you manage your wives any way but by 
divorcing them.?' asked she. 'No,' said the man; 
' so you are divorced as well !' This moment a neigh- 



Ready Answers of the Arabs. 219 

hour's wife came in, and began to abuse him volubly 
for divorcing all his wives for nothing. Turning 
sharply to her, he said, ' If your husband would allow 
me, I would divorce you too, you chatterbox !' 'Oh,' 
said the husband, who now joined the party, * you are 
quite welcome to do so.' So," said El Asmai, " the 
man divorced five wives in one day." 

The Cadi Abu Yusuf, whose complaisant interpre- 
tation of the law I have before spoken of, was one 
day sent for to decide between Haroun Alraschid and 
his wife Zobeideh the weighty question which of two 
dishes was the best. The Cadi tasted first one and 
then another, and at length said, when he had nearly 
finished them both — " I never saw two claimants 
whose causes were so equally balanced. As soon as 
I have listened to one, the other brings an argument 
to overrule it." 

One more specimen of the ready answers of the 
Arabs of the period. 

Meeting an old woman in the desert in the course 
of his numerous pilgrimages to Mecca, Haroun asked 
her to what tribe she belonged. " To Taiy," was the 
reply. " Ah," said the Caliph. " How is it that your 
tribe cannot produce another Hatim.?"^ "How is 
it," retorted the politic old lady, "that the whole 

^ Hatim Taiy was an Arab who lived a few years beiore Mohammed, 
and was proverbial for his great liberality. 



220 Haroun A Iras chid, 

race of the Caliphs have never produced another like 
you ?" The compliment gained her a rich reward. 

Thus far my information has been exclusively 
taken from Oriental sources. European chronicles 
mention an embassy sent by Charlemagne to the 
court of the Caliph, and the interchange of presents 
and diplomatic courtesies between the two monarchs. 
As none of the Arabic histories even hint at this 
circumstance, and the tradition is entirely unsup- 
ported by collateral evidence, I am afraid it must be 
relegated to the ever-increasing category of exploded 
popular errors. 

At a decisive or culminating point in a nation's 
history, the central figure will always form the focus 
of innumerable popular legends. Haroun Alraschid 
is no exception to the rule, and Arabic literature is 
full of stories in which the great Caliph plays a 
part, but many of which might as well have been 
attributed to any other person or time. From this 
mass of heterogeneous materials I have selected 
chiefly such anecdotes as have been handed down 
by trustworthy authority, such as bear upon them- 
selves the stamp of truth, or such as obviously belong 
at least to the period of our history. 

They are indeed the best and almost the only source 
from which information as to Alraschid's personality 
can be obtained, for the science of biography was 
almost unknown to the Arabs of the time, and even 



Character of the Caliph, ,221 

when it was cultivated by them later on, it still retained 
its anecdotal form. Although I have refrained from 
inserting many of the time-honoured jokes and wit- 
ticisms attributed to Alraschid and his merry com- 
panions, several of the foregoing stories may appear 
too frivolous for a serious historical work. I would, 
however, remind the reader that beneath the trivial 
exterior of these tales there lies much that is true, 
and they certainly reflect faithfully Arab society as 
it existed under the Caliphs of Bagdad. They show 
us the subject of our history as he lived and thought 
and spoke, and throw a much stronger light upon his 
personal character than any of the records of his 
public acts. 

I must now take leave of Haroun Alraschid ; I 
have endeavoured to bring him out of the dim mists of 
fable into the clear daylight of history. If, now that 
we know him better, we must deny him the time- 
honoured title of " the Good," we can scarcely study 
his chequered youth, his glorious reign, and his 
miserable end, without allowing him that of " the 
Great." ___.- 

He was a man of great talents, keen intellect, and 
strong will. Had he been born in a humbler position, / 
he might have done something for the good of his f 
country and the world at large, and would certainlW 
even then have attained to eminence. ^^ 

The eloquence and impetuosity of his discourse, as 



222 Haroun Alraschid. 






shown in those speeches of his which have been 
preserved, were remarkable, even for a time when 
eloquence was cultivated and regarded as the 
greatest accomplishment. That these speeches are 
genuine is proved by the fact that, though related 
by different persons, the style is identical in them all, 
and they are of so remarkable a character, that even 
now they linger in the memory of anyone who reads 
them once in the original ; and at the time they were 
uttered, with the tragic circumstances that for the 
most part surrounded them, they must have fixed 
themselves indelibly upon the hearers' minds, and 
could scarcely have been repeated otherwise than 
faithfully. 

^> As a man, he showed many indications of a loyal 
and affectionate disposition, bu^; ' the preposterous 
position in which he was placed almost necessarily^ 
crushed all really human feelings in him. It must 
norbe forgotten that he inherited what was practi- 
cally the empire of the civilised world ; that he was 
the recognised successor and kinsman of God's own 
vicegerent on earth ; that he was the head of the 
Faith ; that, in a word, there was not, and could not 
be, a more grand, important, or worshipful being in 
the world than himself. Nor was this merely instilled 
into his mind by servile courtiers ; it was the deliberate 
conviction of the whole Moslem world — that is to 
say, of the world at large— for no Moslem then, and 



J 



Chai^acter of the Caliph. 223 

few Moslems now, would regard an infidel as even 
deserving the name of one of God's creatures. That 
such a man should not be spoilt, that such absolute 
despotism should not lead to acts of arbitrary 
injustice, that such unlimited power and absence of 
all feelings of responsibility could be possessed with- 
out unlimited indulgence, was not in the nature of 
human events. He was spoilt, he was a bloodthirsty 
despot, he was a debauchee ; but he was also an 
energetic ruler, he humbly performed the duties of 
his religion, and he strove his utmost to increase, or 
at least preserve intact, the glorious inheritance that 
had been handed down to him. If, in carrying out 
any of these views, a subject's life were lost or 
an enemy's country devastated, he thought no more 
of it than does the owner of a palace who bids his 
menials sweep away a spider's web. When he could 
shake off his imperial cares, he was a genial, even an 
amusing companion, and all around him liked him, 
although such as ventured to sport with him did so 
with the sword of the executioner suspended above 
their heads. 

The subsequent history of the Caliphate is a sad 
story of civil war, invasion, and decadence. Under 
Haroun's son, Mamun, it is true the lustre of its 
glory was scarcely dimmed ; for, although the limits 
of the Empire were already contracted, and its 
power restricted, the impulse which that enlightened 



224 Haroun Alraschid, 

monarch gave to literature and science, by encourag- 
ing the translation of the great works of antiquity 
from Sanscrit, Zend, and Greek into his own native 
language, must make his reign gratefully remembered 
by the civilised world. With his successors it was 
far different ; the vices of luxury, indolence, and 
cruelty were indulged in by them to an unlimited 
extent, and entailed their necessary fatal consequence, 
until at length El Motawukkel, the last of the Caliphs, 
was carried by the Ottoman Sultan, Selim, a prisoner 
from Egypt — where he still possessed the shadow of 
at least spiritual authority — to Constantinople, and 
was forced to surrender even his empty title to the con- 
queror. The religion which Mohammed taught, and 
which the early Caliphs, his successors, disseminated 
so widely, has ever since gained ground ; but the 
domination of El Islam as a consolidated temporal 
power virtually ceased with the decadence of the 
imperial city of Bagdad, the glories of which are 
inseparably connected with the name of Haroun 
Alraschid. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE HOUSES OF OMMAIYEH, ABBAS, & ALL 



I 

Abd Shems. 
Omm aiyeh. 

Abu '1 'As. 
I 



Abd Menaf. 
I 



Hashim. 
Abd al Muttaleb. 



Harb. 
I 



Afifan. Hakam. Abu Sofyan. 

I I I 

Othman. Merwanl. Moawiyeh I. 



Yezid I. 
Moawiyeh II. 



Zobeir. 
Abdallah. 

Set'up as 
Caliph at 
Mecca. 



Abde] 



I 
Abdallah. 

MOHAMMED. 



Fatima. 

Married Ali, 

son of 
Abu Talib. 



I 

Abbas. 
Abdallah. 

(Ibn Abbas.) 
I 

Ali. 



I 
Abu Talib. 



Ali, 

marries 
Fatima, q.v. 



Melik. 



I 
Abd el Aziz. 

Omar II. 



Mohammed. 
MerwAnll. 



Walid I. 
i 



I 
Suleiman. 



Yezid III. Ibrahim. 



Yezid II. Hisham. 

I I 

Walid II. Moawiyeh. 

Abd er Rahman, 

Caliph of Spain. 



Salih Mohammed. 
Abd el MeUk. I 



Es Saffah. 



Musa. 

L. 

put to death by 
Haroun AJraschid 



Suleiman. 
Mohammed. 

I His property was 
I , confiscated after 
Mansur. his death by 
I Alraschid. 

Mehdi. 



Hadi. Haroun 
Alraschid. 



Hasan. 



Husain. 
I 



Hasan. 
I 



Zein el Abidin, 

the Imam. 



Ali. 



Hasan. Ibrahim. Abdallah 
I 



Ali. Ismail. Ibrahim 

I I 

Husain. Ibrahim. 

I 
Mohammed. 



Yahya. Mohammed, Idris. 

Rebelled in called Poisoned by 

Deilem under En Nafs ez Zakiyeh, Haroun ■»«• , , 

Haroun Alraschid. Alraschid. Munammea. 



D4ud. 

Suleiman. 

I 



Ah. 

Hasan. 

I 
Husain. 

! 



I 

Zeid. 

Mohammed. 

I 
Mohammed. 



Ali. Mohammed. 



I 
Mohammed. 

Jaafer. 

I 

I I 

Musa. Mohammed. 

Died in prison 

under Haroun 

Alraschid. 



I 

Ibrahim. 



Zeid. 



I 
Abbas. 



I 
AH. 



INDEX. 



Abbasah, 83, 84 ; murder of, 92 ; 

murder of the two sons of, 98, 
Abbasides, 24-26, 37, 55, 58, 'j^, 126. 
Abd el Melik ibn Salih, 48, 75, 100, 

lor, 131-135, 159-161. 
Abdallah, father of Mohammed, 25. 
Abdallab ibn Omar, 18. 
Abdallah ibn Zobeir, 19-22. 
Abd al Muttaleb, 24. 
Abd el Aziz, 22. 
Abd el Mehk, 21, 22. 
Abd el Mehk ibn SaUh, 75. 
Abd er Rahman, son of Abd el 

Mehk, 132. 
Abdarrahman, murderer of All, 15. 
Abraham (Patriarch), legend of, 180, 

7iote. 
Abu 'Atahiyeh, 31, 32, 188-191. 
Abu Isa, son of Alraschid, 205. 
Abu Jerud, sect of, 172. 
Abu Heidham, 63, 64. 
Abu Jaafer Mansur, 26. 
Aba Moslem, 25, 26. 107, no, 126. 
Abu Nawwas, 147-150, 171, 200-204, 

212. 
Abu Mu'dwiyeh, 32. 
Abu Yusuf, 155-159, 172, 219. 
Afreet, 141. 

Africa, 19, 67, 69, 72, 'J2>y ^^5- 
Aladdin, story of, 140. 
Ali, 15, 16, 20, 25 ; family of, 19, 

25-27. 55. 57. 73 ; murder of, 15. 
Al Asmai", 118, 211-213, 218. 
Ah ibn Abi Talib, 85, 131, 153, 167 ; 

family of, 100, 107. 
Ali ibn Isa, 77, 108, 110-112, 127. 
Alraschid, see Haroun, 
Amir ibn Amarah, 63. 
Ancyra, 75. 
Arab, 10, 18-21 ; character, 10 ; re- 

hgion, II ; art, 19 ; folk-lore, 141. 
Arabia, 14, 115. 



I Arabian Nights, 30, 80, 138-140, 143, 
145, 147, 199 ; Galland's version of, 
139; Lane's version of, 139. 
Armenia, 24, 64. 
Asfzar, 108. 

Astrologer, the Jew, 144. 
Attaf ibn Sufeyan, 64. 
Aun el Abadi, 177. 
Ayesha, 15, 16, 
Azerbaijan, 24. 

Babylon, 141. 
Babylonia, 16. 
Bagdad, 54-56, e^,, 71, 74, 90, 107, 

no, 113, 116, 128, 145, 188. 
Balkh, III. 
Bardanes, 'jS. 
Barmecides, ^6, 80, 115, 121, 135, 138, 

196, 213 ; origin of, 81 ; fall of, 42, 

81, 82, 86. 
Bashir, brother of Rafl ibn Leith, 

murdered, 124, 
Byzantine empire, 50, 75, 128. 

Cabus, 69. 

Caliph, 17. 

Camamah, 132. 

Christians, disabilities of, 78, 79. 

Crete, 75. 

Cyprus, 75, 78. 

Damascus, 15, 24, 55, 182, 184, 187. 
Divorce, 158, note. 
Decay of the empire, 224. 
Dome of the rock, 22. 

Edris, 73, 74. 

Egypt, 15, 26, 115, 161. 

Egypt, viceroy of, 45-47. 

Emin, 35, 113-115, 117, 119, 120, 

127, 128, 134, 178, 179, 203-205. 
Euphrates, 17, 56. 



226 



Index. 



Fadhl, the Barmecide, 40, 41, 
43-45. 49-52, 58, 64, 86, 101-104, 
135. 136, 140. 152, 159, 198-200, 
210; beaten in prison, 102 ; death 
of, 104. 

Fadhl ibn Rabf, 53, 81, 122, 125, 
127, 131, 192, 212. 

Fadhl ibn Rauh, 67-69. 

Fadhl ibn Sahl, 113, 114, 

Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, 
130. 

Fatima, sister of Alraschid, 194. 

Female children buried alive, 12. 

Folk-lore, Arab, 140 ; Persian, 140. 

Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou, 89, 120, 

122, 123, 177, 178. 
Galland, 139. 
Ghoul, 141. 
Greeks, 18, 19, 75, 

Hadi, El, 27, 33-35. 

Hajj, 164. 

Hakam, El, story of, 172-177. 

Hdmah, 141. 

Hani, 16. 

Haroun Alraschid, his name, pedi- 
gree, and date of birth, 29 ; his 
accession, 29 ; piety, 30 ; patronage 
of learned men, 31 ; appoints 
Yahya the Barmecide his vizier, 
39 ; anecdote of, with a eulogist 
of the Barmecides, 42 ; jealousy of 
the Barmecides, 81, 82, 85-89 ; 
marries Jaafer and his sister 
Abbasah, 83; slights Yahya, 89; his 
pride of birth, 92; murders Abbasah, 
92; causes Jaafer to be put to death, 
95 ; murders Jaafer's sons, 98 ; in- 
sults Yahya's mother, 100 ; causes 
El Fadhl to be beaten, 102 ; re- 
moves his residence from Bagdad 
toRakka, 107; arranges for the suc- 
cession of Emin and Mamiin, 114; 
sets out for Khorassan, 120 ; falls 
ill at Tus, 122 ; vision of his ap- 
proaching death, 123 ; his death, 
124, T25 ; his wealth, 128 ; puts 
Mousa ibn Jaafer to death, 130 ; 
interview with Abd el Melik ibn 
Salih, 131 -133; his idea of his 
Divine right, 137 ; part played by 



him in the Arabian Nights, 139- 
143 ; his death predicted by a Jew 
astrologer, 144; suffers from sleep- 
lessness, 145 ; his incognito walks 
in Bagdad, 145 ; anecdotes of, 
with Ibn el Karibee, 146; Abu 
Naww^s, 147-15 1, 201 ; Hamid et 
Tusi, 151; El Asmal, 152, 212; the 
Cadi Abu Yusuf, 155, 157-159; 
Isma'il ibn Salih, 159 ; Maan ibn 
Zaidah, 169; Jaafer, 170; Abu 
Miriam, 171 ; El Hakam, 172 ; 
Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou, 177 ; his 
half-brother, Ibrahim ibn el Mehdi, 
179, 180, 206; the Ommiade noble, 
182 ; Abu 'At^hiyeh, 188-191 ; 
Mansiir ibn Ziyad, 192 ; a woman 
of the Barmecides, 196; Ishak ibn 
Ibrahim el Mosih, 210, 211 ; Hisham 
ibn Suleiman, 215; an old.woman in 
the desert, 219 ; his quarrel with 
Jaafer about a slave girl, 157-159 ; 
his adventure with Ibrahim el 
Mosili, 161-164 ; with a Bedawi at 
the Ka'abeh of Mecca, 164-167 ; 
his Arab bride, 169 ; introduces 
El Fadhl the Barmecide into the 
apartments of his sister Ulaiyeh, 
199 ; his son Abu 'Isa the singer, 
205 ; his character, 221-223. 

Harut and Marut, 141. 

Hashem, family of, 59, 88, 98, 119, 

134- 
Hassan, son of Jaafer, 98. 
Hejjaz, El, 21, 22. 
Heraclea, 78. 

Herthemah, 6^, 70, 71, iii, 112. 
Hirah, 177. 
Hisham, 23. 

Hisham ibn Suleiman, 215, 216. 
Holy war, 30. 
Hulwan, 121. 

Husein, El, son of Ali ibn Isa. 108. 
Husain, son of Ali, 16, 17, 19. 
Husein, son of Jaafer, 98. 

Ibadhiyeh, Sj. 

Ibn el Farsi, 69, 70. 

Ibn el Janid, 68, 69. 

Ibrahim, brother of Yezed III., 24. 

Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab, 72. 

Ibrahim, son of Ibn Abbas, 25, 26. 



Index. 



227 



Ibrahim ibn el Mehdi, Alraschid's 
brother, 179-18 1, 206-210. 

Ibrahim el Mosili, 161-164, 167-169. 

Ibrahim, Sheikh, 142. 

Imdm, the, 25, 26, 130, 155, 165. 

India, 22, 56. 

Irak, 23, 24, 115, 130. 

Irene, Empress, 75. 

Isabad, 36. 

Isa 'bn Jaafer, 157. 

Ishdk ibn Ibrahim el Mosili, 49, 
206-211. 

Islam, 15, 17-19, 24, 116. 

Ismail ibn Yahya, 86-88. 

Ismail ibn Salih, 159, 

Jaafer, the Barmecide, 40, 41, 
43-46, 48, 49, 80, B5-89, 93-96, 
98-100, 142, 144, 14s, -157-159, 
169-171, 210, 213, 214, 217; amour 
of, with Abbasah, 83, 84 ; death 
of, 97 ; burning the body of, 99 ; 
mother of, 105. 

Jaafer, son of El Hadi, 33, 34, 36. 

Jaafer ibn Suleiman, 129. 

Jerusalem, 22. 

"Jinn, 141. 

Jinniyeh, 140. 

Jisr el Ghawwasin, 36. 

Ka'abeh, II, loi, it6, 164, 165. 
Kasim, son of Alraschid, 113. 
Kasr el Khuld, 90. 
Kermanshah, 121. 
Khalid the Barmecide, 39. 
Khalifeh, 17. 
Kharegites, 15, 20, 24. 
Kheizaran, Alraschid's mother, 188. 
Khorassan, 25, 26, 50, 57, 64, 'j'j, 78, 

88, 91, 94, 95, 107-109, 112, 113, 

120, 126, 127 ; veiled prophet of, 

27. 
Khosroes, 18. 
Khozars, 74, 75. 
Khuzeimat ibn Khazim, 34. 
Kitab el Aghani, 154. 
Kohistan, 108. 
Koran, 9, 14, 21, 23, 117, 150, 151, 

153, 156, 165, 166, 172, 186, 196, 

197. 
Koreish, 12, 20, 203. 
Kufa, 15, 17, 20, 55, 104, 182, 187. 



Lane, 139. 

Maan ibn Zaidah, 169, 170. 

Magians, 114, 

Mamun, 35, 113-115, 117, 119, 120, 

126-128, 134, 178, 204, 205. 
Mansur, the Caliph, 31, 129, 194, 

211. 
Mansur ibn Ziyad, 192-195. 
Mansur, 26, 27, 55. 
Maslamah, 23. 
Mecca, 11, 19-22, 30, 3r, 102, 116, 

153, 164, 167, 182, 190, 217, 219. 
Medina, 19, 130, 171. 
Mehdi, El, the Caliph, 27, 122, 188. 
Mendra, 182-187. 
Merv, III, 112, 115. 
Merw4n, 20, 22, 26, 135. 
Mesopotamia, 57, 107. 
Mesriir, 92, 93, 95, 96, 103, 123, 125, 

145, 146, 190, 201. 
Moawiyeh, 15, 16, 19. 
Moawiyeh II., 20, 
Modhari clan, 24, 63. 
Mogheirah, 68. 
Mohammed, the Prophet, 9, 11-14, 

17, 18, 21, 25, 130, 153. 
Mohammed ibn Mukatil, 72. 
Mohammed ibn Ibrahim, the Imdra, 

51. 
" Mosque Pigeon," 21. 
Motawukkel, El, 224. 
Mousa ibn jaafer, 129-131. 
Muktadir, JEl, 38. 
Muktafi, El, 38. 
Mukanna, 27. 
Musa 'bn Isa, 61, 62. 

Nafs ez Zakiyeh, En, 57. 
Nahrawan, 94, 113. 
Nasr ibn Sujam, no. 
Nicephorus, 75-78. 
Nimrod, 180, note. 
Nita's, 26. 
Nooreddin, story of, 142. 

Obeid ibn El Abras, 217. 
Olympic games, 11. 
Omani, El, the poet, 117. 
Ommaiyeh, 15. 

Ommiades, 16, 20-22, 26, 27, idB, 
182, 213, 214. 



228 



Index. 



Ommiade party, 107. 
Ommiade nobleman, 183-187, 
Omar, Caliph, 17, 18, 22, 78. 
Omar ibn Mehran, 61-63. 
Othman, 12, 14, 15. 
Oxus, 113. 

Peri, Persian, 140. 

Persian, 14, 18-21, 25 ; art, 19 ; Em- 
pire, 9 ; Gulf, 56 ; fables, 140 ; 
hatred of Arabs, 115. 

Persian, the fair, 142. 

Persian party, 126. 

Pilgrimage, 30, 31. 

Prophet, the, 153. 

Rafi ibnLeith, iio, in, 113, 123. 
Rakka, 107, 112, 113, 123. 
Rakkeh, 77. 
Rhe (or Rye), 58, 64, 109, 205. 

Sabah et Tabari, Es, 120. 

Sabasans, 11, 12. 

Sacrifices, festival of, 104. 

Sadd, 141. 

Saffdh. Es, 26. 

Safsaf, 75. 

Sassanian emperors, 25, 37, 56, 

Sahl ibn Said, 125, 

Sahh ibn Mehran, 192, 193. 

Shiahs, 14, 58, 107. 

Sinai, Bedawinof, 140. 

Sindi, Es, 131, 

Sleeper awakened, 143. 

Spain, anecdote of a king of, 149. 

Sufyan ibn Oyainah, 152, 153, 

Suleiman, Caliph, 22, 129. 

Suleiman, son of Abd el Melik, 22. 

Sunnis, sect of, 14. 

Syria, 24, 115, 134. 

Taberistan, 58. 
Tahir ibn Husein, 109. 
"Taming of the Shrew," 143. 
Tarsus, 78. 



Tartary, 56. 

Tawaf, the, 164. 

Tell, page-boy, lover of Ulaiyeh, 197. 

Theophilus (Greek Admiral), 75, 

Tiberias, Lake of, 215. 

Tigris, 56, 142, 171, 191. 

Traditions, the, 14, 153. 

Transoxania, 113. 

Tunis, 68, 72. 

Ulaiyeh, Alraschid's sister, 197; her 
amour with Tell, 197 ; her talents 
as a musician, 197, 198, 

Veiled prophet of Khorassan, 27. 
Vizier, office of, 37. 

Wa'd el benat, 12. 
Walidl.,24. 
Wahd II,, 22, 23, 
Wahd, Caliph, 215, 216. 
Wahd ibn Tarif, 65, 66. 

Yahya, wife of, 100. 
Yahya 'bn Abdallah, 57-61, 85. 
Yahya 'bn Musa, 70. 
Yahya, the Barmecide, 33-36, 39, 40, 
43-45, 81-83, 89, 90, loi, 119, 122, 

135. 136, 144, 193-195 ; death of, 
104. 

Ya'kub ibn Ddud, 27. 
Yelemlim, Mount, 134. 
Yemen, 17, 20. 
Yemeni faction, 23, 24, 63. 
Yezid ibn Hariin, 154. 
Yezid I., 16, 19, 20. 
Yezid II., 23. 
Yezid III., 24. 

Zab, 70, 72, 

Zein el Abidin, 25. 

Zobeideh, 85, 91, 114, 115, 119, 128, 

136, 157, 175, 176, 197, 199, 200- 
203. 

Zobeiri, the, 59, 60. 



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